George Herbert Clarke, ed. (1873–1953). A Treasury of War Poetry. 1917.
Grace Fallow Norton
The Mobilization in Brittany
I did not know until a woman told me,
Sobbing over the muslin she sold me.
Then I went out and walked to the square
And saw a few dazed people standing there.
O then the drums beat!
And hurrying, stumbling through the street
Came the hurrying stumbling feet.
O I have heard the drums beat
For war!
I have heard the townsfolk come,
I have heard the roll and thunder of the nearest drum
As the drummer stopped and cried, “Hear!
Be strong! The summons comes! Prepare!”
Closing he prayed us to be calm …
Of vast plains of the West before the coming storm,
And there was calm in their eyes like the last calm that shall be.
The fatal drum beat,
And the drummer marched through the street
And down to another square,
And the drummer above took up the beat
And sent it onward where
Huddled, we stood and heard the drums roll,
And then a bell began to toll.
Crashing into simple poor homes.
I have heard the drums roll “Farewell!”
I have heard the tolling cathedral bell.
Will it ever peal again?
Shall I ever smile or feel again?
What was joy? What was pain?
I have seen the drummer striding from street to street,
Crying, “Be strong! Hear what I must tell!”
While the drums roared and rolled and beat
For war!
Rough and strong they are, proud and gay they are.
So this is the way of war …
They sang an old war-song, they were true to themselves, they were gay!
We might have thought they were going for a holiday—
Except for the weeping of the ruddy old women of Finistère.
The younger women do not weep. They dream and stare.
It is their homes, their happiness, vanishing so.
(Every strong man between twenty and forty must go.)
But never before when War was walking the world’s highways.
They sang, they shouted, the Marseillaise!
Though you may know, you, out in the world, we have not heard,
We are not sure that the great battalions have stirred—
Except for the weeping of the wild old women of Finistère.
How long will the others dream and stare?
Rough and strong they are, proud and gay they are.
So this is the way of war …