The Recruit
The Recruit
1Through all the anguish of these days,
2 The haunting horror and the woe,
3One thought can set my heart ablaze
4 My memory aglow.
5It is his look just as he turned
6 After the last good-byes were said,
7A look as though for him there burned
8 Some beacon-light ahead.
9As though beyond the farthest thought
10 Of this dark world's horizon rim,
11Some star of faith by us uncaught
12 Swung into range for him.
13As though his spirit, winged, had flown
14 Past stormy seas on some far quest.
15And like a bird had found its own
16 Hid in a quiet nest.
Publication Notes
Helena Coleman, Marching Men: War Verses
(London: J. M. Dent, 1917): 14. Internet Archive
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
Form