A Cross in Flanders by G. Rostrevor Hamilton.

A CROSS IN FLANDERS by G. Rostrevor Hamilton


In the face of death, they say, he joked--he had no fear;
His comrades, when they laid him in a Flanders grave,
Wrote on a rough-hewn cross--a Calvary stood near--
"Without a fear he gave

"His life, cheering his men, with laughter on his lips."
So wrote they, mourning him. Yet was there only one
Who fully understood his laughter, his gay quips,
One only, she alone--

She who, not so long since, when love was new--confest,
Herself toyed with light laughter while her eyes were dim,
And jested, while with reverence despite her jest
She worshipped God and him.

She knew--O Love, O Death!--his soul had been at grips
With the most solemn things. For _she_, was _she_ not dear?
Yes, he was brave, most brave, with laughter on his lips,
The braver for his fear!



(Sir George Rostrevor Hamilton (1888 - 1967) was an English poet and critic. He worked as a civil servant: his experience as an inspector of taxes meaning he could help out his friend Walter de la Mare. He was knighted in 1951.

He had a classical education at the University of Oxford, and later compiled anthologies of Latin and Greek verse for Nonesuch Press. He was a published war poet of World War One, known for the rather conventional and sentimental A Cross in Flanders.

His book The Tell-Tale Article on the Auden Group made an impact by the expedient of counting the proportion of definite articles in Auden's verse, remarking that it was much higher than in older styles. In general he was a steady conservative in matters of literature.

He was a director of the Poetry Book Society, and well connected as a correspondent of many literary figures; including E. R. Eddison and Owen Barfield.).