  (In Memory of the Sisters who died in the Great Air Raid upon Hospitals at Étaples) Who shall avenge us for anguish unnamable, Rivers of scarlet and crosses of grey, Terror of night-time and blood-lust untamable, Hate without pity where broken we lay? How could we help them, in agony calling us, Those whom we laboured to comfort and save, How still their moaning, whose hour was befalling us, Crushed in a horror more dark than the grave? Burning of canvas and smashing of wood above— Havoc of Mercy’s toil—shall He forget Us that have fallen, Who numbers in gracious love Each tiny creature whose life is man’s debt? Will He not hear us, though speech is now failing us— Voices too feeble to utter a cry? Shall they not answer, the foemen assailing us, Women who suffer and women who die? Who shall avenge us for anguish unnamable, Rivers of scarlet and crosses of grey, Terror of night-time and blood-lust untamable, Hate without pity where broken we lay? |
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