Heart panged, head singing, dizzily pained--
To do my part.

Blindness a moment. Sick.
There the men are!
Bayonets ready: click!
Time goes quick;
A stumbled prayer ... somehow a blazing star
In a blue night ... where?
Again prayer.
The tongue trips. Start:
How's time? Soon now. Two minutes or less.
The gun's fury mounting higher ...
Their utmost. I lift a silent hand. Unseen I bless
Those hearts will follow me.
And beautifully,
Now beautifully my will grips,
Soul calm and round and filmed and white!

A shout: 'Men, no such order as retire!'

I nod.
The whistle's 'twixt my lips ...
I catch
A wan, worn smile at me.
Dear men!
The pale wrist-watch ...
The quiet hand ticks on amid the din.
The guns again
Rise to a last fury, to a rage, a lust: