And kneel down by the little window that looks on the old stone church over the way,
And cross herself slowly, murmuring fragments of prayer....
IX
At Château-Thierry the townsfolk will be strolling out, arm in arm,
Along the bank of the Marne,
Looking at the broken bridge and telling each other in low voices,
How the Americans stopped the Germans and saved Paris;
How men from across the sea, in the country that Lafayette gave his sword to,
Here mended the break in the line,
With their young bodies...and went forward,
Day upon day,
Walking into the machine guns, and dropping, and making a path for the future to tread in....
X
All through the Argonne forest where the German military mind
Had made the best hell it could think of,
Are myriads of little wooden crosses