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(By the Mother of a Midshipman, 1915)
‘She of her want did cast in all that she had.’
‘OH! winds who seek, and seek the whole world over, | |
| Changing from South to North, from heat to cold, | |
| Many and strange the things that you discover, | |
| Changing from West to East, from new to old. | |
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| ‘Seek out and say, my sailor is he living?’ | 5 |
| ‘Oh! foolish mother, dreaming winds would tell! | |
| The winds are deaf with thunder, dumb with grieving. | |
| Who heeds a boy when all the world is hell? | |
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| ‘They range through league-long, month-long battle seething; | |
| Tatter the bitter smoke that hides the shame; | 10 |
| They mingle with the dying’s painful breathing, | |
| They fan the smouldering cities into flame. | |
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| ‘Though they find lands where shuddering Peace is waiting, | |
| Where corn is garnered, cattle led to stall; | |
| Where mills still run and bells of prayer are prating, | 15 |
| Shadow and fear of death hangs over all. | |
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| ‘Pacing our frontiers with our safety weighted, | |
| Our sentry-ships our world-wide empire range; | |
| From sea to sea the winds rush, always freighted | |
| With word and password that our ships exchange. | 20 |
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| ‘They bear the trumpet-blasts where kings are bringing | |
| Armies of warriors from the far, far East; | |
| From far, far West through leagues of cornland singing | |
| They found men hastening on the behest. | |
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| ‘You seek a boy! For all the millions dying | 25 |
| Who drown at sea, or landward fighting fall, | |
| The winds have heard the voice of women crying, | |
| “Where is my love who, dying, takes my all?”’ | |
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| ‘When kings and captains die, the world regrets them: | |
| My boy is proud to serve the selfsame State. | 30 |
| Proud though he die, and all but I forget him, | |
| I will not grudge him, for the Cause is great.’ | |
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