id not dream the dread that swept our land...
Ah, dear, the months have made me very wise!
Now, one with everything, I understand,
And heart meets heart and I can sympathize.

VI. THE WAKING

Now war is over and a world set free,
And youth returns, triumphant, to our land--
And dear-heart, you'll be coming back to me,
With eager lips, and tender outstretched hand!
You will be coming as you came of old,
At evening time, with laughter lilting gay;
Glad of the little things that life may hold--
And I will meet you in the self same way....

Yes, in the shadows by my oaken door,
I will be waiting as I used to wait--
And I will feel that you are come, before
I hear the clicking of the garden gate.
And, in the darkness there, my pulse will leap,
Reviving dreams that long have lain asleep!

AFTER PEACE

"I wonder what they're doin' home tonight?"
Jim said--
We sat there, in the yellow firelight,
There, in a house in France--
Some of us, maybe thinkin' of romance--
Some of us missin' buddies who was dead--
And some just dreamin'
Sorter hardly seemin'
Ter make th' dream come clear.

An' then--Jim spoke--
"I wonder what they're doin' home ternight?"
Says Jim--
An' some of us felt, well--as if we'd like
Ter smother him!
An' some of us tried hard-like not ter choke,
Th' smoke
Was pretty thick an' black!
A-thinkin' back,
Across th' ocean I could sort of see
A little house that means just all ter me
And, though nobody said a word I knew
Their thoughts was goin' on th' self-same track--
Thoughts do
Out here, in France.

Home--HOME--No wonder that we all was still--
For one of us was thinkin' of a hill,
With pine trees on it black against th' moon--
And one of us was dreaming of a town,
All drab an' brown--
An' one of us was lookin'--far an' high
Ter some one who had gone back home too soon
To that real home that is beyond the sky.

Nobody of us spoke fer quite a while--
We didn't smile--
We just sat still an' wondered when there'd be
An order for ter send us home--
Back 'crost the sea.
Th' war was won--
An' we was DONE!
We wanted faces that we loved an' knew,
An' voices too--

W