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Frederick William Harvey

Frederick William Harvey

Sonnet

Comrades of risk and rigour long ago
Who have done battle under honour’s name,
Hoped (living or shot down) some meed of fime,
And wooed bright Danger for a thrilling kiss,—
Laugh, oh laugh well, that we have come to this!
 
Laugh, oh laugh loud, all ye who long ago
Adventure found in gallant company!
Safe in Stagnation, laugh, laugh bitterly.
While on this filthiest backwater of Time’s flow
Drift we and rot, till something set us free!
 
Laugh like old men with senses atrophied,
Heeding no Present, to the Future dead,
Nodding quite foolish by the warm fireside
And seeing no flame, but only in the red
And flickering embers, pictures of the past:—
Life like a cinder fading black at last.

#English #WarWriters #XXCentury

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Other works by Frederick William Harvey...
To the Unknown Nurse

Moth-like at night you flit or fly To where the other patients lie ; I hear, as you brush by my door The flutter of your wings, no more… Shall I now call you in and see
Ballad of Army Pay

In general, if you want a man to d… Say, swim the Channel, climb St.… The Bank of England, why, you fin… Than if you merely wanted him to l… But in the British Army, it’s jus…
A Rondel of Gloucestershire

Big glory mellowing on the mellowi… And in the Uttle valleys, thatch… Wrought by the manifold and vagran… Of sun and ripening rain and wind… My country, that great magic cup w…
To R.E.K.

Dear, rash, warm-hearted friend. So careless of the end, So worldly-foolish, so divinely-wi… Who, caring not one jot For place, gave all you’d got
The Bugler

God dreamed a man; Then, having firmly shut Life like a precious metal in his… Withdrew, His labour done. Thus d… Our various divinity and sin.
The Oldest Inhabitant Hears Far Off the Drums of Death

Sometimes ’tis far off, and someti… Such drummerdery noises too they b… ’Tis odd—oh, I do hope I baint to… Just as the summer months be comin… And buffly chicken out, and bumble…
A Christmas Wish

I CAN NOT give you happiness: For wishes long have ceased to bri… The Fortune which to page and kin… They brought in those good centuri… When with a quaint and starry wand
In Flanders

I’m homesick for my hills again - My hills again! To see above the Severn plain, Unscabbarded against the sky, The blue high blade of Cotswold l…
Autumn in Prison

Here where no tree changes, Here in a prison of pine, I think how Autumn ranges The country that is mine. There—rust upon the chill breeze–
What We Think Of

Walking round our cages like the l… Zoo, We think of things that we have do… we mean to do: Of girls we left behind us, of let…
The Hateful Road

Oh pleasant things there be Without this prison yard: Fields green, and many a tree With shadow on the sward, And drifting clouds that pass
Warning

A man there was, a gentle soul, Of mild enquiring mind, Who came into this neighbourhood Its wonders for to find [ … ] They told him who had put the lid
Ballade

Bodies of comrade soldiers gleamin… Within the mill-pool where you flo… And lounge around part-clothed or… Beautiful shining forms of men ali… O living lutes stringed with the s…
Solitary Confinement

No mortal comes to visit me to-day… Only the gay and early-rising Sun Who strolled in nonchalantly, just… ‘ Good morrow, and despair not, fo… But like the tune which comforted…
To the Old Year

Old year, farewell! Much have you given which was ill… Much have taken which was dear, so… Much have you spoken which was ill… Echoes of speech first uttered dee…



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