‘Loss’ (1916)

    The sea called--
    you faced the estuary,
    you were drowned as the tide passed.--
    I am glad of this--
    at least you have escaped.

    The heavy sea-mist stifles me.
    I choke with each breath--
    a curious peril, this--
    the gods have invented
    curious torture for us.

    One of us, pierced in the flank,
    dragged himself across the marsh,
    he tore at the bay-roots,
    lost hold on the crumbling bank--

    Another crawled--too late--
    for shelter under the cliffs.

    I am glad the tide swept you out,
    O beloved,
    you of all this ghastly host
    alone untouched,
    your white flesh covered with salt
    as with myrrh and burnt iris.

    We were hemmed in this place,
    so few of us, so few of us to fight
    their sure lances,
    the straight thrust--effortless
    with slight life of muscle and shoulder.

    So straight--only we were left,
    the four of us--somehow shut off.

    And the marsh dragged one back,
    and another perished under the cliff,
    and the tide swept you out.

    Your feet cut steel on the paths,
    I followed for the strength
    of life and grasp.
    I have seen beautiful feet
    but never beauty welded with strength.
    I marvelled at your height.

    You stood almost level
    with the lance-bearers
    and so slight.

    And I wondered as you clasped
    your shoulder-strap
    at the strength of your wrist
    and the turn of your young fingers,
    and the lift of your shorn locks,
    and the bronze
    of your sun-burnt neck.

    All of this,
    and the curious knee-cap,
    fitted above the wrought greaves,
    and the sharp muscles of your back
    which the tunic could not cover--
    the outline
    no garment could deface.

    I wonder if you knew how I watched,
    how I crowded before the spearsmen--
    but the gods wanted you,
    the gods wanted you back.