He was edycated at King Edward’s
School,
On the riven earth
No more is poured:
What shall become
Of the race of men?
One shall go forth
In the likeness of a child:
Under sere skies
Of a grey dawning:
And desolate places
Shall spring and blossom:
And men shall sing
And greatly rejoice:
All men
shall sing
For the love that is in them,
And he shall behold it
And sing also.
Birmingham at the same time as J.R.R. Tolkien, where they founded the literary “Tea Club and Barovian Society” (TCBS).
Geoffrey was commissioned as a Lieutenant into the 19th
(Service) Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Wounded by shrapnel on 29th
November 1916, Geoffrey died on 3rd December 1916 and was buried in
Warlincourt Halte British Cemetery, Saulty, France.
The WW1
poetry collection of Geoffrey Bache Smith – “A Spring Harvesst” – was published
in 1918 by Erskine Macdonald, London.
One of his poems was included in “The Valiant Muse: an anthology of poems by poets killed in the
World War”, edited by Frederic W. Ziv and published in 1936 by Putnam, New
York. You can read more of Geoffrey’s
poems on Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48371/48371.txt
Afterwards
- Afterwards,
when
The old
Gods' hateOn the riven earth
No more is poured:
When weapons
of war
Are all
outwornWhat shall become
Of the race of men?
One shall go forth
In the likeness of a child:
Under sere skies
Of a grey dawning:
One shall go
forth
In the
likeness of a child,And desolate places
Shall spring and blossom:
One shall go
forth
In the
likeness of a child:And men shall sing
And greatly rejoice:
For the love that is in them,
And he shall behold it
And sing also.
With thanks to Skip Downing for additional information