SOS ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Home Thoughts in Laventie
f~* KEEN gardens In Lavcntle !
\J Soldiers only know the street
Where the mud is churned and splashed about
By battle-wending feet;
And yet beside one stricken house there Is a glimpse of grass9
Look for it when you pass.
Beyond the church whose pitted spire
Seems balanced on a strand
Of swaying stone and tottering brick
Two roofless ruins stand,
And here behind the wreckage where the back wall should have been
We found a garden green.
The grass was never trodden on,.
The little path of gravel
Was overgrown with celaiidines
No other folk did travel
Along its weedy surface, but the nimble-footed mouse
Running from house to house.
Hungry for Spring I bent my head*
The perfume fanned my face,
And all my soul was dancing
In that little lovely place,
Dancing with a measured step from wrecked and shattered towns
Away—upon the Downs.
I saw green banks of daffodil,
Slim poplars In the breeze,
Great tan-brown hares In gusty March
A-courting on the leas ;
And meadows with their glittering stream, and silver scurrying dace,
Home—what a perfect place. Edward Wyndham Tennant
The Quiet Song
PEACE, God's own peace9
This it is I bring you
The quiet song of sleep,
Dear tired heart, I sing you.
Dream, softly dream,
Till solemn death shall find you,
With coronals of roses
Tenderly to bind you.
Peace past understanding,
Dear tired heart, I bring you ;
The quiet song of evening
Softly I sing you.
Ivar Campbell