Page:A treasury of war poetry, British and American poems of the world war, 1914-1919.djvu/186

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186
REFLECTIONS

But oh its leaves are fresh and green,
Why bring the holly berry?
Because it wears the red, red hue,
The colour to the season true,
When war must have his tribute due,
And only birds and babes and things unknowing
Can be merry.
So take away the mistletoe,
Yet keep the holly berry.


And shall we never see again
Aught but the holly berry?
Yes, after sacrifice sublime,
When rings some later Christmas chime,
When dawns the new and better time,
Not only birds and babes and things unknowing
Shall be merry,
But you shall see the mistletoe
Twined with the holly berry.


"THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS"

THERE will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows calling with their shimmering sound;


And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild-plum trees in tremulous white;


Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;


And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.


Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;


And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.


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