Page:A treasury of war poetry, British and American poems of the world war, 1914-1919.djvu/207

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207
INCIDENTS AND ASPECTS

RESURRECTION

HE looked back down the long lane of the years—
A fleeting, over-shoulder, furtive glance
Of eyes askance,
Eyes of a fugitive from doubts and fears
Clouding the vision. Yet for self-esteem
The world would offer scaffold and roof-beam,
House of two tiers,
A habitation meet for the elect.
For they were sober levels that he trod
With genial nod
For fellow-journey men; he never wrecked
Laughter and banter breaking from a lip
With chill and frost of reticence; the grip,
Free and unchecked,
Of friendliness had ever met the hand
Outstretched to his; and in no woman's heart
The sting and dart
Of shame for rifled innocence had banned
Him from the fold and fellowship of the clean.
Sane and serene,
He'd passed the milestones of the beaten track
Leaving remorse few memories to rack;
With ordered rhythm and unjostled pace
For forty years he'd run an even race.
And yet—and yet—he shunned the retrospect;
Though it was decked
With the accomplishments of a career,
No sign was there
Nor echo of the battle where strong men
Fight the fierce fight and feel the jarring steel,
Burst through the battlements, and rock and reel
In the red pen
Of blood and dust and rage and victory,
He'd lit no beacon on a storm-tossed sea,
Called no deep music from a great machine;
He'd never seen
The steel hull shearing sea-cliffs at his will,
Felt no long silence follow his "Be still!"


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