Page:The Muse in Arms, Osborn (ed), 1917.djvu/70

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28
THE APPROACH
28

Heads forget heaviness,
Hearts forget spleen,
For by that mighty winnowing
Being is blown clean.


Light in the eyes again,
Strength in the hand,
A spirit dares, dies, forgives
And can understand.


And best! Love comes back again
After grief and shame,
And along the wind of death
Throws a clean flame!

·····

The battery grides and jingles;
Mile succeeds to mile;
Suddenly battering the silence
The guns burst out a while.

·····

I lift my head and smile.


3. Nearer

Nearer and ever nearer. . . .
My body tired but tense
Hovers 'twixt vague pleasure
And tremulous confidence.