NOW must we go our separate ways, Beloved. I may not follow you 'mid shot and shell -- Whatever to this hate-racked world War means, To women it must ever mean, "Farewell!" Unmurmuring must we send you forth to death, The love-locked gates of life fling open wide, Bid you troop out -- you dear ones whom we've kept So close and warm! -- and see you go, dry-eyed. From out seared, silent hearts must thrust you forth With no caress, no word, lest courage fail -- Crumble beneath the dear, familiar touch, And love, with traitor-tenderness, prevail. Oh, God of Battles! is there yet some land, Some happy land, where partings have surcease? Where unwrung heart leans to another heart, And breathes in tranquil rapture, "Here is Peace!"? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOVE'S MIRACLE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON A MENDOCINO MEMORY by EDWIN MARKHAM LIKE A BULRUSH by MARIANNE MOORE IN A BREATH; TO THE WILLIAMSON BROTHERS by CARL SANDBURG TO A LADY WHO HAD OFFERED HIM A WREATH OF LAUREL by GEORGE SANTAYANA |