TO ONE WHO DIED IN BATTLE.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 6 March 1919, Page 2

TO ONE WHO DIED IN BATTLE.

I knew you glad to go ; I envied you. -m To pour the glory of your young life fortl In one libation—what more happy lot? J Be spared the slow, sad djJ£of^B|jni and hopes, -^"t^ 'mt^^< Of love and memories, that leaves us dij And bitter, seared and bleared wit! creeping age. | Who would not die in battle ? Life c& short ? * Nay, blosspmed in a moment, rich wit fruit, H Blossom and fruit together, which tU years _ % Might never ripen—uneventful years % Of nursery-gardening one sixfoil, p'reciolS -.. self, '^ Which seeds and die and none know! why it was. *] I knew you glad to go ; you knew noil ■- why— The sting of high adventure in your bloo^ The salt of danger savouring nights an< days; _j And in your heart the wstve of boom unknown ;,' Deep feeling shared with comrades, thai bore you on "* The tideways that the coward neve knows, ,\ Nor he who hoards his life for hie ow ends. J O happy boy, you have not lost yofi years! 'j You lived them through and through; those brief days 'j When you stood facing death. They ai not lost : ' '- They rushed together as the waters rut) From many sources ; you had all in om You filled "your little cup with all ex perience, And drank the golden foam, "and left tb dregs, : ; And tossed the cup away. Why shouli we mourn j Your happiness? You burned clea flame, while he , /. Who treads the endless march of dust years ■ ' Grows blind and choked with dust befoi he dies, ;- And dying goes back to the primal dus And has not lived so long in those lon years As you in your few, vibrant, golde months When like a spendthrift you gave a you were.