Poem by Edith Nesbit

To Her: in Time of War

   ONCE I made for you songs,
   Rondels, triolets, sonnets;
   Verse that my love deemed due,
   Verse that your love found fair.
   Now the wide wings of war
   Hang, like a hawk’s, over England,
   Shadowing meadows and groves;
   And the birds and the lovers are mute.

   Yet there’s a thing to say
   Before I go into battle,
   Not now a poet’s word
   But a man’s word to his mate:
   Dear, if I come back never,
   Be it your pride that we gave
   The hope of our hearts, each other,
   For the sake of the Hope of the World.

1. The Day of Judgment
2. In Hospital
3. Prayer in Time of War
4. At Parting
5. Invocation

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