New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-22
The Coming 7o9ver
THE DARK HOUR

While here would lie,
With staring eyes unseeing in the fading light
Tom, Steve, or Harry--even |.
VIC lay within the trench,
The dauk. brown earth encompaSsed us
And shut from view
Our ugly little portion of the world
Only the stars looked down,
Colby curious
TO know Of what spoke.
We talked Of one thing and another.
steve wished he had not lost his pipe;
And Harry thought the guns seemed louder
Just before the dawn.
Tom wondered what his girl was doing
Now that he was gone.
lie hoped she got that German helmet
lie sent her after Combles
But II could not speak
Tor thinking of the dawn.
The darkest hour Of night precedes the dawn.
Ne. every living thing in that black hour
Thrills with new hope Of day to come.
Each speeding second bears the pledge
OF blessed light
81 length.
Pregnant with mystery, the dread hour fees,
Driven to cover by the bright, relentless sun.
Then wakes the world.
The night is past,
And life begins anew.
For us the dawn held promise
OF fear and pain and death,
az strsnirg lungs and bursting heart,
Of maddened cries from blood crazed brains,
of raging tumuIt-
And eternal peace.
And 50 We Law within the trench and talked.
Tom hoped the wind would change
H. fel, like rain.
Steve answered that it would not rain
He'd bet) before three days had passed.
Steve was q farmer boy
Before he came with U.S.
Harry was silent,
Busy with his bayonet.
While II did not dare to speak
For fear my voice might shake,
And they would know
could not keep from thinking Of the dawn.
lay and waited for the dawn,
Waited for the dreadful dawn
wondered if I'd see
Another day fade into night
And then came terror at the thought
Another night Of waiting for the dawn!
Now faster came the roaring rumble OF the guns
And sharply flashed the bursting shells
Against the sky, each glare
Rotting from view the stars
Then from the north the wind bore down
The cracking rattle Of the rife fire.
-r--,- noe -oar
Slowly the black was merging into gray
And one by one the little stars withdrew
The first damp breath of day
Sighed past.
ar of a lone cock crowed.
But here no welcome greeted light,
None rose to meet it with joyful cry.
Even the birds had fled,
trd only dismal waste remained.
I tried to pray,
But could not find the words
thought to curse my courage back,
And found the curses would not come.
J glanced about,
Afraid had betrayed my quaking thoughts
Tom slept.
But Steve and Harry with wide open eyes
Stared straight before them.
Did they, too, fear the dawn?
Then came the dawn.
Along the eastern sky
rudy glow presaged redder day.
The word sped by,
And in the trench
We leaped to answer,
Waiting tensely for the sun
Waiting-at last it rose,
Flooding the earth with light
The dawn the dawn!
And with the coming Of TIE dawn
Passed the dark hour.
Gone then were fear, and fear of fear
was man once more,
And springinC from the trench,
Swept forward i'm the charge. SAfE'
,roe dav when Mr. Hoover and the President are
walton. we wish the Food Administrator would 81
yilson conserve his "very"s We offer prize
S 10 ANYBODY who will show us WoodroVlah SCI
in it that wouldn't be just as strong with the W
asst night came a photograph, from Mantle Conn,
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