To C. H. V.

What shall I bring to you, wife of mine.
When I come back from the war?
A ribbon your dear brown hair to twine?
A shawl from a Berlin store?
Say, shall I choose you some Prussian hack
When the Uhlans we o'erwhelm?
Shall I bring you a Potsdam goblet back
And the crest from a Prince's helm?

Little you'd care what I laid at your feet,
Ribbon or crest or shawl —
What if I bring you nothing, sweet,
Nor maybe come home at all?
Ah, but you'll know. Brave Heart, you'll know
Two things I'll have kept to send:
Mine honour for which you bade me go
And my love — my love to the end.