| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920. 1920. |
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| He Did Not Know |
| | | Harry Kemp |
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| HE did not know that he was dead; | |
| He walked along the crowded street, | |
| Smiled, tipped his hat, nodded his head | |
| To his friends he chanced to meet. | |
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| And yet they passed him quietly by | 5 |
| With an unknowing, level stare; | |
| They met him with an abstract eye | |
| As if he were the air. | |
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| “Some sorry thing has come to pass,” | |
| The dead man thought; he hurried home, | 10 |
| And found his wife before her glass, | |
| Dallying with a comb. | |
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| He found his wife all dressed in black; | |
| He kissed her mouth, he stroked her head. | |
| “Men act so strange since I’ve come back | 15 |
| From over there,” he said. | |
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| She spoke no word; she only smiled. | |
| But now he heard her say his name, | |
| And saw her study, grief-beguiled, | |
| His picture in a frame. | 20 |
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| Then he remembered that black night | |
| And the great shell-burst, wide and red, | |
| The sudden plunging into light; | |
And knew that he was dead.
The Century Magazine | |
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