TO A SOLDIER IN HOSPITAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2884, 23 September 1916, Page 10

TO A SOLDIER IN HOSPITAL

— b- : ...... ... -.._. Courage came to you with 1 your boyhood's grace •■•.'•' Of ardent life and limb. Each day new dangers steeled yon to -thVtesty To ride, to climb, to swim. Tour, hot blood taught you carelessness of death With every breath. So when you went to play another game You could not but be brave: An Empire's team," a rougher football -field," ■■■'■. ■; TheiendlH-p.erhaps your grave. .What matter? On the winning of a goal >•;.;• . You staked your soul. IYes, you woro courage as you wore your youth With carelessness and joy. But in what' Spartan school of discipline Did you get pationce, boy? How did you: learn to bear • this long, drawn pain .;.:. And-not complain? ■ ■ Restless with'.'throbbing .hopes, with thwarted aims, Impulsive as a colt, '. How do you lie _ here month by weary month . ' Helpless and not revolt?' What joy can these monotonous days ' afford . Hero in a ward ? , ; Yet you are merry as the birds in spring, Or feiga the gaiety, Lest those who dress and tend your wound oacli day Should guess the agony.Lest they should suffer—this the only fear You let draw near. Greybeard philosophy lias sought in i books And. argument this-truth, That man is greater than his pain, but .you ... Have learnt it in your youth. You know the wisdom taught by Calvary -■' At twcnty.three. Death would have found you brave, but i braver still Yon face each lagging day, A raerry Stoic, patient, chivalrous, Divinely kind and gay. You bear your knowledge lightly, graduOf unkind Fate. Careless philosopher, the first to laugh, The latest to complain, Unmindful that you : teach,-you taught mo this , In your long fight with pain; Since God made man so ' stands my creed— ~. God's good indeed. \t, ,-W. M,,ltet|s, in j*The, Spectator,'^,,,