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Robert W Service - The Wife
Work rating: Low

"Tell Annie I`ll be home in time
To help her with her Christmas-tree."
That`s what he wrote, and hark! the chime
Of Christmas bells, and where is he?
And how the house is dark and sad,
And Annie`s sobbing on my knee!

The page beside the candle-flame
With cruel type was overfilled;
I read and read until a name
Leapt at me and my heart was stilled:
My eye crept up the column — up
Unto its hateful heading: Killed.

And there was Annie on the stair:
"And will he not be long?" she said.
Her eyes were bright and in her hair
She`d twined a bit of riband red;
And every step was daddy`s sure,
Till tired out she went to bed.

And there alone I sat so still,
With staring eyes that did not see;
The room was desolate and chill,
And desolate the heart of me;
Outside I heard the news-boys shrill:
"Another Glorious Victory!"

A victory. . . . Ah! what care I?
A thousand victories are vain.
Here in my ruined home I cry
From out my black despair and pain,
I`d rather, rather damned defeat,
And have my man with me again.

They talk to us of pride and power,
Of Empire vast beyond the sea;
As here beside my hearth I cower,
What mean such words as these to me?
Oh, will they lift the clouds that low`r,
Or light my load in years to be?

What matters it to us poor folk?
Who win or lose, it`s we who pay.
Oh, I would laugh beneath the yoke
If I had him at home to-day;
One`s home before one`s country comes:
Aye, so a million women say.

"Hush, Annie dear, don`t sorrow so."
(How can I tell her?) "See, we`ll light
With tiny star of purest glow
Each little candle pink and white."
(They make mistakes. I`ll tell myself
I did not read that name aright.)
Come, dearest one; come, let us pray
Beside our gleaming Christmas-tree;
Just fold your little hands and say
These words so softly after me:
"God pity mothers in distress,
And little children fatherless."

"God pity mothers in distress,
And little children fatherless."

. . . . .

What`s that? — a step upon the stair;
A shout! — the door thrown open wide!
My hero and my man is there,
And Annie`s leaping by his side. . . .
The room reels round, I faint, I fall. . . .
"O God! Thy world is glorified."
Source
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