One More...

One more boy killed in France;
     He’s only like the rest;
He’s had to take his chance;
     But, then — you loved him best.

The news that came at noon
     Your brightest hopes have shattered;
Let God arise! and soon
     His enemies, be scattered.

England expects to-day
     See each one’s duty done;
So “bound at home to stay,”
     Your victory must be won.

This sorrow in your heart
     Bury quite deeply down;
Get on, and do your part;
     Look upwards! There’s the crown.

Go out and do the deed
     Your boy would urge you do.
Help others in their need;
     There are some worse than you.

Then, when with all your might,
     You think “what might have been;”
It is not yet the night —
     There shall be light at e’en.

S. Maxwell, Bangor.

Poem: The Witness, 3rd November 1916
Image: A woman tends to a grave in Poperinghe near the Belgian city of Ypres. (c) Getty Images.