First World War Poetry Digital Archive

Tears

TEARS by EDWARD THOMAS It seems I have no tears left. They should have fallen--- Their ghosts, if tears have ghosts, did fall---that day When twenty hounds streamed by me, not yet combed out But still all equals in their rage of gladness Upon the scent, made one, like a great dragon In Blooming Meadow that bends towards the sun And once bore hops: and on that other day When I stepped out from the double-shadowed Tower Into an April morning, stirring and sweet And warm. Strange solitude was there and silence. A mightier charm than any in the Tower Possessed the courtyard. They were changing guard, Soldiers in line, young English countrymen, Fair-haired and ruddy, in white tunics. Drums And fifes were playing 'The British Grenadiers'. The men, the music piercing that solitude And silence, told me truths I had not dreamed, And have forgotten since their beauty passed.

Citation

“Tears,” by Thomas, Edward (1878-1917). Copyright Edward Thomas, 1979, reproduced under licence from Faber and Faber Ltd. via First World War Poetry Digital Archive, accessed March 29, 2024, http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/2925.

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