Classic Poem

I saw him march in the line to-day,
And never a girl had he;
And he sailed to the Great Grim War away,
The clown of his company.
They'd crowd his tent in the camp at night
When the long day's drill was done;
For the ready jest on his lips was light
Who'd a thousand friends and none.

I heard him laugh in a bar last week,
A laugh that the footlights know
When the limelight glares on the painted cheek
Through the tinsel sham and show.
I saw him stand by a grave last year —
He thought that he stood alone —
And the under world through his eyes looked sheer
From a face like a face of stone.

I saw him smile as he passed me by —
For he saw me and went his way —
And how should he wear for such as I
The smile that he wears to-day?
For my face was " plain " for a brave man's bride —
He left me as brave men dare —
And the other girl lived and the other girl died
Because her face was fair.

I saw his face when the moonlight shone
One night by the wind-tossed wood,
And once 'neath the stars when the moon was gone,
And I thought that the lines were good,
And once when the skies were weeping sad
To his sick-room door I crept,
And the lines were good, and the lines were bad,
In the lamplight while he slept.

I saw him march through the streets to-day
And on through the wharf's wide gates
(There's a face for the woman that loves, they say,
And a face for the woman that hates),
And the memory of the dead past stood
In the living present's stead;
And I wonder now will the lines be good
On his face when he is dead.

I saw him march in the line to-day,
And never a girl had he;
I saw him sail to the war away,
The clown of his company,
The saddest man where many are sad,
With the good-bye cheerings done,
In the Legion Lost of the Good-and-Bad
With a thousand friends and one.