TO FIGHTER PILOT
written during the Battle of Britain: 1940

You who are gone, escaped this little life
And - passing upward, left the fields of strife:
Were fashioned in a new nobility
With mind unshackled and soul set free
From bonds of sordidness. This hating world
Had changed for you - for in its teeth you hurled
Your battle cry: "This little that I am
I give!" Your alter: red blood ran....
And when God called for greater sacrifice
You did not stint but gave your all: your life.
And now your noble soul has found release,
The storm has passed for you: you are at peace.
God grant this war-torn world can justify your deed
By founding peace: as tribute to its gallant dead.

[Editor’s note: The poem was included at the end of the transcription of the letter of July 20, 1944.]