Marching Men: War Verses/And They Were Young
AND THEY WERE YOUNG.
TIS when you're young and life ascends
That joy waits where the white road bends,
And every face you meet is a friend's.
'Tis when you're young that dreams come true,
And never a cloud but the sun shines through,
When life holds out both hands to you.
For youth it is that rainbows gleam
With showers of gold in every beam—
At either end a pot o' dream.
Ever for youth the roads run straight,
And out beside the wishing-gate
Fairies and blindfold fortune wait.
For youth the jealous roses keep
Their red hearts closed in reticence deep—
The lilies wait in folded sleep.
And oh, for youth each bush with God
Is still afire, and every sod
Bears imprint where His foot has trod.
And they were young who lie so still
Far on that sodden Flanders hill.