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1914, and Other Poems

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[Pg 44] <div class="poem">THE CHILTERNS</div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Your hands, my dear, adorable, Your lips of tenderness —Oh, I've loved you faithfully and well, Three years, or a bit less. It wasn't a success. </div> <div class="stanza"> Thank God, that's done! and I'll take the road, Quit of my youth and you, The Roman road to Wendover By Tring and Lilley Hoo, As a free man may do. </div> <div class="stanza"> For youth goes over, the joys that fly, The tears that follow fast; And the dirtiest things we do must lie Forgotten at the last; Even Love goes past. </div> <div class="stanza"> What's left behind I shall not find, The splendour and the pain; The splash of sun, the shouting wind, And the brave sting of rain, I may not meet again. </div> <div class="stanza"> But the years, that take the best away, Give something in the end; And a better friend than love have they, For none to mar or mend, That have themselves to friend. [Pg 45]</div> <div class="stanza"> I shall desire and I shall find The best of my desires; The autumn road, the mellow wind That soothes the darkening shires. And laughter, and inn-fires. </div> <div class="stanza"> White mist about the black hedgerows, The slumbering Midland plain, The silence where the clover grows, And the dead leaves in the lane, Certainly, these remain. </div> <div class="stanza"> And I shall find some girl perhaps, And a better one than you, With eyes as wise, but kindlier, And lips as soft, but true. And I daresay she will do. </div> </div> <hr class="large" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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