Cyril Winterbotham

Cyril Winterbotham Poems

The Best Poem Of Cyril Winterbotham

The Cross Of Wood

Not now for you the glorious return
To steep Stroud valleys, to the Severn leas
By Tewksbury and Gloucester, or the trees
Of Cheltenham under high Cotswold stern.
For you no medals such as others wear -
A cross of bronze for those approved brave -
To you is given, above a shallow grave,
The Wooden Cross that marks you resting there.
Rest you content, more honourable far
Than all the Orders is the Cross of Wood,
The symbol of self-sacrifice that stood
Bearing the God whose brethren you are.

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