WAX SONNETS.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15309, 19 June 1915, Page 7

WAX SONNETS.

A SEQUENCE BY RUPERT

BROOKE.

i. PEACE. ' Now, God be thanked Who has matched n_ with His hour, And caught our youth, and waken**d us from sleeping " With hand mado sure, clear eye, and ehaj-p—led power, To turn, aa swimmers into c]__rnc_j tea,pi*i£, G—d from a world grown old and cold and weary, Leave the sick heart_ that ho>noo_ oould not move, And half-men, and their dirty eong. and dreary, And all the little emptinc«s of lovo! Oh! we, who have known sbamc, we have found rclea—> there, Where*!* there's no ill, no grief, but sleep h-as men drag, Nutii*ht broken save thi. body, loot bot breath, Nothing to shake tho laughing heart's long poace there But ono agony, and that has ending; And tho worst friend and enemy is but Death. 11. SAFETY. Dear! of all happy in tho hour, most blest He who bus found our hid ee—irity, Assured in the dark tide, of the world that rest. And heard our word, "Who is bo e_fe as we?" Wo have found safety with all things undying, The winds, and morning, ears of men and mirth, Tho deep night, and birds erriging and clouds flying, And sle-cp, and freedom, and tho antumiial earth. We have built a I—_—• that i_ not for Time's throwing. Wo have gained a po—» unshaken by pain for over. War knows no power. Safo -hall bo my Roing, Secretly armed again—, all death's endeavour ; Safo though all safety's lost; safe where men fail', .And ii th— -o poor limbs die, safest of all. 111. THE DEAD. Blow curt, you bugles, over tho rich Dead! There's none* of t_c_o —> lonely aud poor of" old, •But, dying, has mado us rarer gifts than gold. These "aid tho wo-ld away; pou—*d out tbo red Sweet wino of youth; gavo up tho years to bo Of work and "oy, and that —_iopc_ sesi.net. That men call age and thoso who would havo bee_ Their eons, they gave, their immortality. Blow, bugle-, blow! Thoy brought u__ for onr dearth, Holm—a, lacked so long, _id Love, and Pain. Honour has come back, aa ft king, to earth, And paid hi. subjects with a- royal wage; And nol?—i—»s walksTn our ways again; And we have como into our he-it_ge. IV* THE DEAD. Theso h—xt« wero woven of human joys and cares, Washed m_-vello_vly with, con _w, .wilt to mirth. Tbe yearn l«>v« given, them kin_a«». Dawn was their— And euns.t, an d ihe colo_re of tho earth. Thoso had (jeen mo7e_—_—y and heard muaio; knowSlum beT and waking; loved; gone proudly friended; _—t tho quick stir of —ondi—■; sat alone; Touched flowers and furs and checks. All this is ended. There mo wa'te—. blown by changing winds to laughter And lit by the rich ekies all day. And alter, Frost with a ge—wro, stay- t_e waves that dan co And wandering lovelmc_B. Ho leaves a whitUnbroken glory, a gathered radiance, A width, a shining pe—:e, under the night. V. THE SOLDIEE. If I should die, think only this of mo; That there's eo_e comer of a foreign field That ia for ever England. There shall be In that rioh earth a richer dust concealed; A duet whom England hote, ebaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flower- to love, her wayto roam, A body of England's, breathing English air, Washed by tho rivers, blest 'by suns of home. And think, this heart, all evil _led away, A pul—s in tlie eternal mind, no lees ' Gives —imewhero back the thought- by England given; Her — gh_ and Bounds; dreams happy a_ her day; And laught-ex, learnt of friends; and gentleness, _ In heart, at peace, under an English heaven.