FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   >>  
thin brazen notes he threw a prayer, "God, if it's _this_ for me next time in France ... O spare the phantom bugle as I lie Dead in the gas and smoke and roar of guns, Dead in a row with the other broken ones Lying so stiff and still under the sky, Jolly young Fusiliers too good to die." WHEN I'M KILLED When I'm killed, don't think of me Buried there in Cambrin Wood, Nor as in Zion think of me With the Intolerable Good. And there's one thing that I know well, I'm damned if I'll be damned to Hell! So when I'm killed, don't wait for me, Walking the dim corridor; In Heaven or Hell, don't wait for me, Or you must wait for evermore. You'll find me buried, living-dead In these verses that you've read. So when I'm killed, don't mourn for me, Shot, poor lad, so bold and young, Killed and gone--don't mourn for me. On your lips my life is hung: O friends and lovers, you can save Your playfellow from the grave. LETTER TO S.S. FROM MAMETZ WOOD I never dreamed we'd meet that day In our old haunts down Fricourt way, Plotting such marvellous journeys there For jolly old "Apres-la-guerre." Well, when it's over, first we'll meet At Gweithdy Bach, my country seat In Wales, a curious little shop With two rooms and a roof on top, A sort of Morlancourt-ish billet That never needs a crowd to fill it. But oh, the country round about! The sort of view that makes you shout For want of any better way Of praising God: there's a blue bay Shining in front, and on the right Snowden and Hebog capped with white, And lots of other jolly peaks That you could wonder at for weeks, With jag and spur and hump and cleft. There's a grey castle on the left, And back in the high Hinterland You'll see the grave of Shawn Knarlbrand, Who slew the savage Buffaloon By the Nant-col one night in June, And won his surname from the horn Of this prodigious unicorn. Beyond, where the two Rhinogs tower, Rhinog Fach and Rhinog Fawr, Close there after a four years' chase From Thessaly and the woods of Thrace, The beaten Dog-cat stood at bay And growled and fought and passed away. You'll see where mountain conies grapple With prayer and creed in their rock chapel Which Ben and Claire once built for them; They call it Soear Bethlehem. You'll see where in old Roman days, Before Revivals changed our ways, The Virgin 'scaped the Devil's grab, Printing her foot on a stone slab With five clear toe-marks; and you'll find The
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   >>  



Top keywords:

killed

 

damned

 

country

 

Rhinog

 

prayer

 

Knarlbrand

 

castle

 

Hinterland

 

surname

 
prodigious

unicorn
 

Buffaloon

 

savage

 
Shining
 

praising

 

Snowden

 
Beyond
 

capped

 
Bethlehem
 

Revivals


Before
 

Claire

 

changed

 

scaped

 

Virgin

 

Printing

 

chapel

 

Thessaly

 

Rhinogs

 

Thrace


beaten

 

conies

 

mountain

 
grapple
 

passed

 

growled

 

fought

 
brazen
 

verses

 
living

buried
 
broken
 

evermore

 

friends

 

Killed

 

Heaven

 

Intolerable

 

Cambrin

 
KILLED
 

Buried