Despair - Olive E Lindsay

Half of me died at Bapaume,
And the rest of me is a log:
For my soul was in the other half;
And the half that is here is a clog
On the one that would always be doing
In days never to come again
Carry me into the darkness sir,
And put me out of my pain.

The best of me died at Bapaume
When the world went up in fire,
And the soul that was mine deserted
And left me, a thing in the mire,
With a madden’d and dim remembrance
Of a time when my life was whole.
Carry me into the darkness sir,
And let me find my soul.

If half of you went at Bapaume,
And with it your soul went too,
That soul has laid as a sacrifice
The half that was torn from you.
At the feet of the One who Himself has given,
Laid all that a man can give;
And then you will return to the other half
And show it how to live.

Olive E Lindsay