LONDON
A Canadian soldier, returned to "Blighty" speaks
The day we came to London! Oh, how strange
To see the City-of-the-World like this!
Our dreams had been of London. Not 'the sights'
But that young London that young hearts explore;
The Music Halls, the roads, the sleepy Inns,
Where old Romance is felt anew each day.
This was to be our London.
Thus we came:
We came as cattle come, when packed too tight
In some barbaric car of ancient mould;
We came not driven with whips, nor massed in crowds,
But driven by bitter pain and almost dead
From faintness of our wounds. We came
From siege and rapine, plunder and hell-fire,
From thunders never ceasing, from swift death,
From screams and cries, and parting gasp of souls,
And from supremest vision given to man.
This way we came to London.
Oh, my friends,
We touched white cliffs upon a summer day,
Pain-blinded, minds befogged, we rode along
That ancient-traversed way of all the world.
And, slowly, as the evening shadows fell
We reached old Paddington. Were driven out
In shabby cabs, through misty, half-lit ways,
Into a great wide Place, from whence small streets
Wondered zig-zag with no apparent plan,
Yet knew we were at home.
I still can feel
The cab stop for a moment, and a face
Peer in the open window. 'Twas a mask
Set in a flowered hat. With awful eyes
She stared, and asked, and answered in a flash:
"Ah, well! You're nearly dead, poor dears, but I—
I, who am here forever, come again."
And then we drifted on, and soft grey walls
Held us a moment to dissolve in mist.
Once at a turn I saw the Abbey rise
And once the outstretched arms of giant trees.
Sometimes a light, but always murmurous noise
Not so much hoof-beat, motor-hum or cry,
As vibrancy of voices, far and near,
A myriad-mingled sound of many men.
This, and a strange new vision of the heart,
A love just dawning, an age-old surprise,
A sudden turning to those splendid arms
That are forever open. Thus we came
Broken by war, home to her splendid arms.
THE MOTHER
My son sails high
His ocean, azure air:
He in the shining sky—
And swift Death everywhere.
His ardent youth
Explores a strange new sea
As if even Death, forsooth,
Were rare good company.