10 OCTOBER 1914, Page 17

POETRY.

AN EPITAPH.

LOVED by the gods he perished in his prime, Meeting the death be most of all desired; From tenderest boyhood he had ever aspired To draw his sword for England. At her time Of supreme stress, to uphold a cause sublime

She called him, and, by purest valour fired, Foremost in onset, he the palm acquired And passed exultant into glory's clime.

Of such are England's warriors. Proudly she, Enrolling them with her heroic dead, Shall stir her sons through all the years to be For Freedom and for Right their blood to shed, Even as, mindful of Thermopylae, Sparta invoked the brave who there had bled !

WILLIAM TOYEDEZ.