University of Virginia Library


109

[His heart was worn and sore]

His heart was worn and sore;
He was old before his time;
He had wasted half his life.
Night—it was always night,
And never a star above:
But the ring of a manly stroke,
The flash of a gentle look,
The touch of a comrade's hand
Groping for his on the march,
Were more to him than the day.

110

At the thought of his youth,
At the pulse of love,
At the swoop of death,
He sang aloud in the dark,
And touched the heart of the world.