A treasury of war poetry, British and American poems of the world war, 1914-1919/After Action
AFTER ACTION
(A Soul Remembers)
ONCE, in my moment of earth,
Before the immortal re-birth,
I thought of my flesh as a thing
Like to the house of a king,—
Beautiful, worthy to stand
Proud on the heavenly strand.
I remember it now as a clod
Prone in the gardens of God,—
Mean, without honour or beauty,
Justified but by the duty
Of spending its pittance of power
In rearing a heavenly flower.