Margaret L. Woods (1856-1945). To the Forgotten Dead. J. C. Squire, ed. 1921. A Book of Women's Verse

J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921.

To the Forgotten Dead

By Margaret L. Woods (1856–1945)


TO the forgotten dead,
Come, let us drink in silence ere we part.
To every fervent yet resolvèd heart
That brought its tameless passion and its tears,
Renunciation and laborious years,	5
To lay the deep foundations of our race,
To rear its mighty ramparts overhead
And light its pinnacles with golden grace.
To the unhonoured dead.

To the forgotten dead,	10
What dauntless hands were stretched to grasp the rein
Of Fate and hurl into the void again
Her thunder-hoofèd horses, rushing blind
Earthward along the courses of the wind.
Among the stars along the wind in vain	15
Their souls were scattered and their blood was shed,
And nothing, nothing of them doth remain.
To the thrice-perished dead.