108. The Red Cross Spirit Speaks by John Finley. Clarke, George Herbert, ed. 1917. A Treasury of War Poetry

George Herbert Clarke, ed. (1873–1953). A Treasury of War Poetry. 1917.

108. The Red Cross Spirit Speaks

By John Finley


WHEREVER war, with its red woes,
Or flood, or fire, or famine goes,
There, too, go I;
If earth in any quarter quakes
Or pestilence its ravage makes,	5
Thither I fly.

I kneel behind the soldier’s trench,
I walk ’mid shambles’ smear and stench,
The dead I mourn;
I bear the stretcher and I bend	10
O’er Fritz and Pierre and Jack to mend
What shells have torn.

I go wherever men may dare,
I go wherever woman’s care
And love can live,	15
Wherever strength and skill can bring
Surcease to human suffering,
Or solace give.

I helped upon Haldora’s shore;
With Hospitaller Knights I bore	20
The first red cross;
I was the Lady of the Lamp;
I saw in Solferino’s camp
The crimson loss.

I am your pennies and your pounds;	25
I am your bodies on their rounds
Of pain afar;
I am you, doing what you would
If you were only where you could—
Your avatar.	30

The cross which on my arm I wear,
The flag which o’er my breast I bear,
Is but the sign
Of what you’d sacrifice for him
Who suffers on the hellish rim	35
Of war’s red line.