Guards Came Through and other Poems

<h2><SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_22" title="22"> </SPAN>THE GUNS IN SUSSEX</h2> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line"><span class="small-caps">Light</span> green of grass and richer green of bush</div> <div class="line indent2">Slope upwards to the darkest green of fir.</div> <div class="line">How still! How deathly still! And yet the hush</div> <div class="line indent2">Shivers and trembles with some subtle stir,</div> <div class="line">Some far-off throbbing like a muffled drum,</div> <div class="line indent2">Beaten in broken rhythm oversea,</div> <div class="line">To play the last funereal march of some</div> <div class="line indent2">Who die to-day that Europe may be free.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">The deep-blue heaven, curving from the green,</div> <div class="line indent2">Spans with its shimmering arch the flowery zone;</div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_23" title="23"> </SPAN> <div class="line">In all God's earth there is no gentler scene,</div> <div class="line indent2">And yet I hear that awesome monotone.</div> <div class="line">Above the circling midge's piping shrill,</div> <div class="line indent2">And the long droning of the questing bee,</div> <div class="line">Above all sultry summer sounds, it still</div> <div class="line indent2">Mutters its ceaseless menaces to me.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">And as I listen, all the garden fair</div> <div class="line indent2">Darkens to plains of misery and death,</div> <div class="line">And, looking past the roses, I see there</div> <div class="line indent2">Those sordid furrows with the rising breath</div> <div class="line">Of all things foul and black. My heart is hot</div> <div class="line indent2">Within me as I view it, and I cry,</div> <div class="line">&ldquo;Better the misery of these men's lot</div> <div class="line indent2">Than all the peace that comes to such as I!&rdquo;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_24" title="24"> </SPAN> <div class="line">And strange that in the pauses of the sound</div> <div class="line indent2">I hear the children's laughter as they roam,</div> <div class="line">And then their mother calls, and all around</div> <div class="line indent2">Rise up the gentle murmurs of a home.</div> <div class="line">But still I gaze afar, and at the sight</div> <div class="line indent2">My whole soul softens to its heart-felt prayer,</div> <div class="line">&ldquo;Spirit of Justice, Thou for whom they fight,</div> <div class="line indent2">Ah, turn in mercy to our lads out there!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">&ldquo;The froward peoples have deserved Thy wrath,</div> <div class="line indent2">And on them is the Judgment as of old,</div> <div class="line">But if they wandered from the hallowed path</div> <div class="line indent2">Yet is their retribution manifold.</div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_25" title="25"> </SPAN> <div class="line">Behold all Europe writhing on the rack,</div> <div class="line indent2">The sins of fathers grinding down the sons!</div> <div class="line">How long, O Lord?&rdquo; He sends no answer back,</div> <div class="line indent2">But still I hear the mutter of the guns.</div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />