 | Petition to the Deil |  |
69
MEMORIAL SONNET TO WILLIE.
April 5, 1916.
[_]
Captain William Robertson Houston, 12th Royal Scots (attached to the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers), wounded in action in Flanders on the 27th, died of his wound on 28th March, 1916. He was buried, “with all the honours due to a gallant soldier at the Front,” in the little cemetery at Rémy, one and a half miles from Poperinghe, Belgium, and on the road to Boeschepe. Age 22. A native of Dunfermline; student of law at Edinburgh University; and my nephew.
O not for fame—that false light lured him not—
But to approve his manhood, and to show
His love of country as a true-born Scot,
And check the rapine of a ruthless foe.
But to approve his manhood, and to show
His love of country as a true-born Scot,
And check the rapine of a ruthless foe.
When the call came, he answer'd on the spot—
I come! how can I stay when others go?
And is the patriotic past forgot?
And is the Kaiser to be conqueror? No!
I come! how can I stay when others go?
And is the patriotic past forgot?
And is the Kaiser to be conqueror? No!
70
Say not his life was wasted—say not so:
An unseen Hand directs the destined lot;
And life, that but commences here below,
Subserves a higher purpose than we wot.
An unseen Hand directs the destined lot;
And life, that but commences here below,
Subserves a higher purpose than we wot.
Why, then, lament? There is no reason why;
To pass from earth to heaven is not to die.
To pass from earth to heaven is not to die.
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