To E. T. + 

I slumbered with your poems on my breast + 

Spread open as I dropped them half-read through + 

Like dove wings on a figure on a tomb + 

To see, if in a dream they brought of you, + 

I might not have the chance I missed in life + 

Through some delay, and call you to your face + 

First soldier, and then poet, and then both, + 

Who died a soldier-poet of your race. + 

I meant, you meant, that nothing should remain + 

Unsaid between us, brother, and this remained⁠— + 

And one thing more that was not then to say: + 

The Victory for what it lost and gained. + 

You went to meet the shell’s embrace of fire + 

On Vimy Ridge; and when you fell that day + 

The war seemed over more for you than me, + 

But now for me than you⁠—the other way. + 

How over, though, for even me who knew + 

The foe thrust back unsafe beyond the Rhine, + 

If I was not to speak of it to you + 

And see you pleased once more with words of mine? + 