War's Embers, and Other Verses

BY THE SAME AUTHOR SEVERN AND SOMME, 1917

BY IVOR GURNEY London: SIDGWICK & JACKSON, LTD. 3 ADAM STREET, ADELPHI, W.C.2. 1919 First published in 1919 All rights reserved
O, if my wishes were my power, You should be praised as were most fit, Whose kindness cannot help but flower.
But since the fates have ordered it Otherwise, then ere the hour Of darkness deaden all my wit
I’ll write: how all my art was poor, My mind too thought-packed to acquit My debt ... And only, “Thanks once more.”
A few of the poems in this volume have already appeared in print: “The Volunteer,” “In a Ward,” and “The Battalion is now on Rest” in The Spectator ; “The Immortal Hour” in The Westminster Gazette ; “The Day of Victory” in The Gloucester Journal ; and “After Music” in The R.C.M, Magazine . The author desires to thank the respective editors for their kind permission to include these poems in the present collection.


I would test God’s purposes: I will go up and see What fate He’ll give, what destiny His hand holds for me.
For God is very secret, Slow-smiles, but does not say A word that will foreshadow Shape of the coming day.