Читать книгу H.M.S - John Graham Bower - Страница 5

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They called across to Peter at the changing of the Guard,

At the red-gold Doors that the Angels keep—

"Lend us help to the Portal, for they press upon us hard,

They are straining at the Gate, many deep."

Then Peter rose and went to the wicket by the Wall,

Where the Starlight flashed upon the crowd;

And he saw a mighty wave from the Greatest Gale of all

Break beneath him with a roar, swelling loud—

Let us in! Let us in! We have left a load of sin On the battlefield that flashes far below. From the trenches or the sea—there's a pass for such as we, For we died with our faces to the foe.

"We haven't any creed—for we never felt the need— And our morals are as ragged as can be; But we finished in a way that has cleared us of the clay, And we're coming to you clean, as you can see."

Then Peter looked below him with a smile upon his lips,

And he answered, "Ye are fighters, as I know

By your badges of the air, of the trenches, and the ships,

And the wounds that on your bodies glisten so."

And he looked upon the wounds, that were many and were grim,

And his glance was all-embracing—unafraid;

And he looked to meet the eyes that were smiling up to him,

All a-level as a new-forged blade.

"Ye are savage men and rough—from the fo'c'sle and the tent;

Ye have put High Heaven to alarm;

But I see it written clear by the road ye went,

That ye held by the Fifteenth Psalm."

And they shouted in return, "'Tis a thing we've never read, But you passed our friends inside That won to the end of the road we tread Long ago when the Mons Men died."

"Let us in! Let us in! We have fallen for the Right, And the Crown that we listed to win, That we earned by the Somme or the waters of the Bight; You're a fighting man yourself—Let us in!"

Then Peter gave a sign and the Gates flung wide

To the sound of a bugle-call:

"Pass the fighting men to the ranks inside,

Who came from the earth or the cold grey tide,

With their heads held high and a soldier's stride,

To a Friend in the Judgment Hall."