 | The Comrades |  |
IV
But when my child, my one girl-babe lay dead—
The blossom of me, my dream and my desire—
And unshed tears burned in my eyes like fire,
And when my wife subdued her sobs, and said:
Oh! husband, do not grieve, be comforted,
She is with Christ!—I laughed in my despair.
With Christ! O God! and where is Christ, and where
My poor dead babe? And where the countless dead?
The blossom of me, my dream and my desire—
And unshed tears burned in my eyes like fire,
And when my wife subdued her sobs, and said:
Oh! husband, do not grieve, be comforted,
She is with Christ!—I laughed in my despair.
With Christ! O God! and where is Christ, and where
My poor dead babe? And where the countless dead?
143
The great glad Earth—my kin!—is glad as though
No child had ever died; the heaven of May
Leans like a laughing face above my grief.
Is she clean lost for ever? How shall I know?
O Christ! art thou still Christ? And shall I pray
For unbelief or fulness of belief?
No child had ever died; the heaven of May
Leans like a laughing face above my grief.
Is she clean lost for ever? How shall I know?
O Christ! art thou still Christ? And shall I pray
For unbelief or fulness of belief?
| The Comrades | |