| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XXIX. The Happy Dead
Pierre | | By Maurice Baring (1874–1945) |
| | | I SAW you starting for another war, | |
| The emblem of adventure and of youth, | |
| So that men trembled, saying: ‘He forsooth | |
| Has gone, has gone, and shall return no more.’ | |
| And then out there, they told me you were dead, | 5 |
| Taken and killed; how was it that I knew, | |
| Whatever else was true, that was not true? | |
| And then I saw you pale upon your bed, | |
| Scarcely two years ago, when you were sent | |
| Back from the margin of the dim abyss; | 10 |
| For Death had sealed you with a warning kiss, | |
| And let you go to meet a nobler fate: | |
| To fight for hearth and home, O fortunate, | |
| To die in battle with your regiment. | | | | |
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