Thursday 19 November 2015

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field 
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth, a richer dust concealed; 
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back those thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an  English heaven.

For my Father

10 June 1928 - 2 November 2015