Night is o'er England, and the winds are still;
Jasmine and honeysuckle steep the air;
Softly the stars that are all Europe's fill
Her heaven-wide dark with radiancy fair;
That shadowed moon now waxing in the west
Stirs not a rumour in her tranquil seas;
Mysterious sleep has lulled her heart to rest,
Deep even as theirs beneath her churchyard trees.

Secure, serene; dumb now the night-hawk's threat;
The guns' low thunder drumming o'er the tide;
The anguish pulsing in her stricken side....
All is at peace....But, never, heart, forget:
For this her younges, best, and bravest died,
These bright dews once were mixed with bloody sweat.

"Peace" from Memory and Other Poems (1938)

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PEACE

A heart to be at peace with,
Wisdom at peace to be;
To love no less though loved no more
Be all the hope in me.

"Peace" from Unpublished Poems (1970)

Walter de la Mare (1873-1956),
Complete Poems of Walter de la Mare
Alfred Knopf, NY, 1970, pp. 379, 703

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