All these verses were written in France, and in sound of the guns, save only two or three earlier pieces. This should be reason enough to excuse any roughness in the technique. If more reason is required, people of home, and most of all, people of Gloucester, may well be indulgent to one who thought of them so often, and whose images of beauty in the mind were always of Gloucester, county of Cotswold and Severn, and a plain rich, blossomy, and sweet of airs--as the wise Romans knew, who made their homes in exile by the brown river, watching the further bank for signs of war. Ivor Gurney. _Spring_, 1917. CONTENTS PAGE TO CERTAIN COMRADES 13 THE FIRE KINDLED 15 TO THE POET BEFORE BATTLE 17 MAISEMORE 18 AFTERWARDS 20 CAROL 21 STRANGE SERVICE 23 SERENITY 25 THE SIGNALLER’S VISION 26 THE MOTHER 27 TO ENGLAND--A NOTE 28 BACH AND THE SENTRY 29 LETTERS 30 STRAFE 31 ACQUIESCENCE 32 THE STRONG THING 33 SCOTS 34 TO AN UNKNOWN LADY 35 SONG AND PAIN 36 PURPLE AND BLACK 37 WEST COUNTRY 38 FIRELIGHT 39 THE ESTAMINET 40 SONG 42 BALLAD OF THE THREE SPECTRES 43 COMMUNION 44 TIME AND THE SOLDIER 45 INFLUENCES 46 AFTER-GLOW 47 HAIL AND FAREWELL 48