Contents

George Herbert Clarke, ed. (1873–1953). A Treasury of War Poetry. 1917.

John Freeman

The Return

I HEARD the rumbling guns. I saw the smoke,

The unintelligible shock of hosts that still,

Far off, unseeing, strove and strove again;

And Beauty flying naked down the hill

From morn to eve: and the stern night cried Peace!

And shut the strife in darkness: all was still,

Then slowly crept a triumph on the dark—

And I heard Beauty singing up the hill.