Poems

Quiet Only the footprints of the partridge run Over the billowy drifts on the mountain-side; And now on level wings the brown birds glide Following the […]

Retreat Broken, bewildered by the long retreat Across the stifling leagues of southern plain, Across the scorching leagues of trampled grain, Half-stunned, half-blinded, by the trudge […]

Reveille Still bathed in its moonlight slumber, the little white house by the cedar Stands silent against the red dawn; And nothing I know of who […]

The Blind Rower And since he rowed his father home, His hand has never touched an oar. All day he wanders on the shore, And hearkens […]

The Cakewalk In smoky lamplight of a Smyrna Café, He saw them, seven solemn negroes dancing, With faces rapt and out-thrust bellies prancing In a slow […]

The Conscript Indifferent, flippant, earnest, but all bored, The doctors sit in the glare of electric light Watching the endless stream of naked white Bodies of […]

The Crane The biggest crane on earth, it lifts Two hundred ton more easily Than I can lift my heavy head: And when it swings, the […]

The Dancing Seal When we were building Skua Light– The first men who had lived a night Upon that deep-sea Isle– As soon as chisel touched […]

The Messages “I cannot quite remember…. There were five Dropt dead beside me in the trench–and three Whispered their dying messages to me….” Back from the […]

The Parrots Somewhere, somewhen I’ve seen, But where or when I’ll never know, Parrots of shrilly green With crests of shriller scarlet flying Out of black […]