BALLADE
No. 2

You dawns, whose loveliness I have not missed,

Making so delicate background for the larches

Melting the hills to softest amethyst;

O beauty never absent from our marches;

Passion of heaven shot golden through the arches

Of woods, or filtered softly from a star,

Nature’s wild love that never cloys or parches;

Because of you I love the name of War.

I have seen dawn and sunset, night and morning,