As The 100th Anniversary Of The Beginning of World War I (Remember The War To End All Wars) Starts ... Some Remembrances-Poet’s Corner

Edward Shillito

Hardness of Heart

In the first watch no death but made us mourn;

Now tearless eyes run down the daily roll,

Whose names are written in the book of death;

For sealed are now the springs of tears, as when

The tropic sun makes dry the torrent's course

After the rains. They are too many now

For mortal eyes to weep, and none can see

But God alone the Thing itself and live.

We look to seaward, and behold a cry!

To skyward, and they fall as stricken birds

On autumn fields; and earth cries out its toll,

From the Great River to the world's end--toll

Of dead, and maimed and lost; we dare not stay;

Tears are not endless and we have no more.