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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FULFILLMENT, by ROBERT MALISE BOWYER NICHOLS Poet's Biography
First Line: Was there love once? I have forgotten her
Last Line: All, all my joy, my grief, my love, are thine.
Subject(s): Soldiers' Writings; World War I; First World War
First Line: Was there love once? I have forgotten her
Last Line: All, all my joy, my grief, my love, are thine.
Subject(s): Soldiers' Writings; World War I; First World War
Was there love once? I have forgotten her.
Was there grief once? Grief yet is mine.
Other loves I have, men rough, but men who stir
More grief, more joy, than love of thee and thine.
Faces cheerful, full of whimsical mirth,
Lined by the wind, burned by the sun;
Bodies enraptured by the abounding earth,
As whose children we are brethren: one.
And any moment may descend hot death
To shatter limbs! Pulp, tear, blast
Beloved soldiers who love rough life and breath
Not less for dying faithful to the last.
O the fading eyes, the grimed face turned bony,
Oped mouth gushing, fallen head,
Lessening pressure of a hand, shrunk, clammed and stony!
O sudden spasm, release of the dead!
Was there love once? I have forgotten her.
Was there grief once? Grief yet is mine.
O loved, living, dying, heroic soldier,
All, all my joy, my grief, my love, are thine.
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