India's services in the war (Volume 1): General (Lucknow, 1922)

INDIA’S SERVICES IM THE WAR.

CHAP T ER I .

INTRODUCTORY.
“ Is there aught you need that my hands withhold,
Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold ?
Lol 1 have Hung to the East and West
Priceless treasures torn from my breast,
And yielded the sons of my stricken womb
To the drum-beats of duty, the sabres of doom.
Gathered like pearls in their alien graves,
Silent they sleep by the Persian waves ;
Scattered like shells on Egyptian sands
They lie with pale brows ami brave, broken hands;
They arc strewn like blossoms mown down by chance
On the blood-brown meadows of Flanders and France.
Can ye measure the grief of the tears 1 weep
Or compass the woe of the watch 1 keep
(Jr the pride that thrills thro my heart’s despair
And the hope that comforts the anguish of prayer i
And the far, sad, glorious vision I see
Of the torn red banners of victor\'
When the terror and tumult of hate shall cease
Ami life be refashioned on anvils of peace,
Ami your love shall offer memorial thanks
To the comrades who fought m vour dauntless ranks,
And you honour the deeds of the deathless ones,
llemember the blood of mv marl s red sons.
In this exquisite poem, redolent of poetic aroma, Sreemuttv