==== Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts British writers on peace and war Maurice Baring: Selections on war ==== Maurice BaringThe Dying Reservist I shall not see the faces of my friends,Nor hear the songs the rested reapers singAfter the labors of the harvesting,In those dark nights before the summer ends;Nor see the floods of spring, the melting snow,Nor in the autumn twilight hear the stirOf reedy marshes, when the wild ducks whirAnd circle black against the afterglow.My mother died; she shall not have to weep;My wife will find another home; my child,Too young, will never grieve or know; but IHave found my brother, and contentedlyI’ll lay my head upon his knees and sleep.O brother Death, – I knew you when you smiled.
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