Farewell

    Mother, with unbowed head

    Hear thou across the sea

    The farewell of the dead,

    The dead who died for thee.

Greet them again with tender words and grave,

For saving thee, themselves they could not save.

    To keep the house unharmed

    Their fathers built so fair,

    Deeming endurance armed

    Better than brute despair,

They found the secret of the word that saith,

"Service is sweet, for all true life is death."

    So greet thou well thy dead

    Across the homeless sea,

    And be thou comforted

    Because they died for thee.

Far off they served, but now their deed is done

For evermore their life and thine are one.