GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR

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When first I saw you in the curious street,

Like some platoon of soldier ghosts in grey,

My mad impulse was all to smite and slay

To spit upon you, tread you ‘neath my feet.

But when I saw how each sad soul did greet,

My gaze with no sign of defiant frown,

How from tired eyes looked spirits broken down.

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How each face showed the pale flag of defeat,

And doubt, despair, and disillusionment,

And how were grievous wounds on many a head,

And on your garb red-faced was other red;

And how you stooped as men, whose strength was spent,

I knew that we had suffered each as other,

And could have grasped your hand and cried, ‘My brother!’

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Joseph Lee. 1878 – 1949.

TO GERMANY

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You are blind like us,

Your hurt no man designed,

And no man claimed the conquest of your land,

But gropers both through fields of thoughts confined,

We stumble and we do not understand.

You only saw your future bigly planned,

And we the tapering paths of our own mind.

And in each other’s dearest ways we stand,

And hiss and hate, and the blind fight the blind.

.

When it is peace, then we may view again,

With new-won eyes each other’s truer form;

And wonder. Grown more loving-kind and warm,

We’ll grasp firm hands and laugh at the old pain,

When it is peace. But until peace, the storm,

The darkness and the thunder and the rain.

.

Charles Hamilton Sorley. 1895 – 1915

FORTY SHADES OF VERSE Michael Walsh. Packed to the last page with illustrated stories and heart-felt verse the perfect gift for those inspired by Ireland. GETS TO THE HEART OF IRELAND

https://books.by/michael-walsh#forty-shades-of-verse