"NEWPORT BELLS"
I returned to the town of my childhood
When my youth had passed away;
But the old familiar voices
Have altered since that day.
The children I used to play with
Are men and women grown,
And many have gone for ever
Where parting is unknown.
But soon my heart was thrilled by
An old familiar strain,
And I knew not which was stronger,
The pleasure or the pain:
For the dear old bells were ringing
In their old familiar ways.
And they seemed in my heart to echo
As they did in my childhood’s days.
All other things seemed altered
And “changed with changing years,”
But they still speak of hope, and love,
And peace, that calms our fears.
For when they tell of “home, sweet home,”
I think of the home above,
Where soon, with sin and sorrow past,
We’ll meet with those we love.
Those joyous bells, unchanged by time,
How clear and sweet they sound!
Though cruel war and bitter strife
Is raging all around.
Ring out, O dear old bells, ring out!
Send forth your loving call;
Ring out! Sometime, somewhere, somehow,
There’s better life for all.
ESTHER BATEMAN
September 12th 1916
From a very interesting website which has one or two other poems included: http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/mkha/mkha/projects/jt/newport/docs/newport-ww1.html
