5 MAY 1917, Page 12

POETRY.

AN AMERICAN COLLEGE TO AN ENGLISH UNIVERSITY.

Oxman, when I remembered thou hadst been Two years engaged in this most holy war, My heart with bitterness and shame was sore, Because as yet I had not felt the keen

Sweet pain of sacrifice that others bore,

Now when I know that 1 perforce must share That sacrifice, it seems like death to say : "Let it be so! What others bore, I bear.

Let them go forth. I would not have them stay." They are so young—those men—and Life should hold So much for them of work and love and mirth.

Yet God forbid that we should be less bold, Less strong than you to save a blood-stained earth.

What though our hearts are broken by the toll?

Their death shall save alive the Nation's soul.

M. B. S.