MORE SONGS BY THE
FIGHTING MEN
SOLDIER POETS: SECOND SERIES
LONDON
ERSKINE MACDONALD, LTD.
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright in the United States of America by Erskine Macdonald, Ltd.
First Published December, 1917.
AN Introduction to this second series of "Soldier Poets" is superfluous. What was said by way of Foreword to the original volume is equally true of its successor. There is the less need for repetition because that original Introduction and the poems that followed have been the text of many articles, sermons, and speeches, including an address by the President of the Board of Education, who allows us to paraphrase his remarks on the characteristic features, already noted, of the remarkable outburst of lyrical poetry from the seat of war. The poems are remarkedly individual, he pointed out: they are entirely free from hate and execration. There is no reviling of the enemy. Our young soldiers look to poetry as a deliverance from the grim necessities of the hour rather than as a means of expressing martial emotion. They do not gush concerning patriotism, but they feel it none the less, and express it soberly, seriously, and with intense conviction.
The same characteristics, the same yearning over the beloved country left behind and of tender feeling for parents and home, are found in all the poems that have come to us from men in the fighting forces since the former volume was collected. And here we may repeat, that while these volumes are typical of the lyrical efflorescence of the fighting men, they do not pretend to be exhaustive: the larger task of sifting already published work and compiling a more complete anthology has been undertaken by a devoted advocate of the significance of the soldier poets' work and its claim to recognition.
We builded better than we knew when we issued the original volume as the climax of our proud association with the soldier poets: it was a greater thing than we were then aware of. No literary work of our day has possessed so much genetic force or been of greater influence. It was well said that "Soldier Poets" was of greater service to the Allied cause in America than many Blue Books and specially prepared statements: it showed the high clean spirit of ardent, generous youth engaged on a new Crusade. These songs before sunrise gave fresh vitality to poetry and were welcomed by a nation on the eve of rebirth as the promise of a greater intensity of living, a finer perception of beauty, a clearer vision of the undying splendour after the weary days in which life and art had become dreary and meaningless to the multitude. Now the birth-throes have become more severe, the spiritual quickening more accentuated, more and more of the poems are personal threnodies, and the sentinel graves of the Poetry Review young men who responded to the call in 1914 now consecrate the long line from Nieuport to Basra. They are a more glorious and more numerous company than the Elizabethans, with whom, in the great comradeship beyond the grave, they still march, an invisible army, with their brothers-in-arms who continue the material and spiritual warfare here in the flesh, inspiring and directing the fight that will not end with the war.
"The Poetry Review,"
London, W.C.
All Saints' Day, 1917.
| Eric De Banzie, Sapper, R.E.—
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PAGE
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| The Gift
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5
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| Paul Bewsher, Sub.-Lieut., R.N.A.S.—
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| The Dawn Patrol
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16
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| Collin Brooks, Sergeant, M.G.C.—
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| To Another Poor Poet
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18
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| Carroll Carstairs, Lieut., Grenadier Guards—
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| Death in France
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19
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| The Lover's Mood
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20
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| Life and Death
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20
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| Ernest K. Challenger, Corporal, R.E.—
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| The Harvest
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21
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| Eric Chilman, Private, East Yorks—
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| After-days
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27
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| A. Newberry Choyce, Lieut., Leicestershire Regiment—
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| Supermen
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28
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| Reincarnation
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29
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| Loss
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31
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| Reginald F. Clements, Sec. Lieut., Royal Sussex Regiment—
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| Immortality
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33
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| Finis Coronat Opus
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34
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| Leonard Niell Cook, M.C., Sec. Lieut., Royal Lancs—
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| Plymouth Sound
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35
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| Gerald M. Cooper, Sec. Lieut., Scots Guards—
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| Sonnets
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36
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| Leslie Coulson, Sergeant, London Regiment—
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| "—But a Short Time to Live"
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38
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| From the Somme
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39
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| The Secret
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40
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| S. Donald Cox, Private, Rifle Brigade—
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| The Wind in the Trees
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41
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| On a Girl killed by German Shrapnel
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42
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| Life
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43
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| John Eugene Crombie, Captain, Gordon Highlanders—
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| The Dream-path
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44
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| The Pedlar
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45
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| The Gate
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46
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| Desolation
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47
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| The Mist
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48
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| The Shrine
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49
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| Easter Day, 1917—The Eve of the Battle
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50
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| Geoffrey H. Crump, Major, Essex Regiment—
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| God
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51
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| Sunset
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52
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| Off St. Helena
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53
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| Plymouth Mists
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54
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| R. C. G. Dartford, Captain, attached to Portuguese Expeditionary Force—
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| A Soldier's Question: Spring, 1917
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56
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| War-time Consolation
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57
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| Welcome Death
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57
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| Clifford J. Druce, Sec. Lieut., Gloucester Regiment—
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| Forecast
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58
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| To a Grave of the Glosters
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59
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| Spying in Picardy
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61
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| H. S. Graham, Captain, R.E.T.—
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| The Seers
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62
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| The Field of Blood
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63
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| Wilfrid J. Halliday, Sec. Lieut., West Yorks—
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| "An Unknown British Soldier"
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64
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| Malcolm Hemphrey, Corporal, A.O.C.—
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| The New Year
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66
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| Brian Hill, Sec. Lieut., Durham Light Infantry—
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| Salonika in November
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68
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| Martin Hill, Corporal, R.A.M.C.—
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| On Seeing the Coast of England from Boulogne
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70
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| Requiescat
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71
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| Harold John Jarvis, Corporal, The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry—
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| Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori
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73
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| At a Wayside Shrine
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77
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| D. T. Jones, Sec. Lieut., M.G.C.—
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| Flint
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80
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| To a Warship
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80
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| R. Watson Kerr, Sec. Lieut., Tank Corps—
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| Sounds by Night
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81
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| Rain
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82
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| The Ancient Thought
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83
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| At the Base
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83
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| In Bitterness
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84
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| Dudley H. Harris, Cadet, Tank Corps—
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| Left Alone
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84
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| Frank C. Lewis, Flight Sub.-Lieut., R.N.A.S.—
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| Belgium, 1914
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86
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| Ad Profunda
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88
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| The Downs, looking from Savernake Forest
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89
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| P. H. B. Lyon, Lieut., Durham Light Infantry—
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| Requiem
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91
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| The Lay of the Bombardier
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93
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| Ian H. T. Mackenzie, Sec. Lieut., Highland Light Infantry—
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| Desire
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95
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| And So Man Lives
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96
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| Charles John Beech Masefield, M.C., Acting Captain, 5th North Staffs—
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| Enlisted, or The Recruits
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99
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| Sailing for Flanders
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100
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| Two Julys
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102
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| In Honorem Fortium
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103
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| John Mason, Captain, Royal Scots—
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| My Country
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105
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| Harley Matthews, Private, A.I.F.—
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| Homeward
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107
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| Murray McClymont, Sec. Lieut., 2/10th (Scottish) K.L.R.—
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| God's Acre
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109
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| Hills of Home
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110
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| To a Fallen Comrade
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111
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| Rudolph Louis Nègros, Lance-Corporal, West Yorks—
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| Con Amore
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113
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| Armel O'Connor, Private, East Anglian Field Ambulance—
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| Violet
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120
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| David Cox McEwen Osborne, Lance-Corporal, 1st Middlesex—
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| May-Day
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122
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| Private Claye
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123
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| J. Peterson, Private, Seaforth Highlanders—
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| Peace
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124
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| Arras
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125
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| "Richard Raleigh," Sec. Lieut., O. and B.L.I.—
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| A Soldier's Litany
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127
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| K. M. Scobie, Sec. Lieut., R.G.A.—
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| Lunae
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129
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| R. Howard Spring, Corporal, A.S.C.—
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| Hic Jacet
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131
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| Sonnet
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132
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| At Sunset: September, 1917
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132
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| The Bells
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133
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| J. E. Stewart, M.C., Captain, Border Regiment—
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| Before Action
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136
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| Renascence
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137
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| Courage
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138
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| Eric Fitzwalter Wilkinson, M.C., Captain, West Yorks—
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| To a Choir of Birds
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139
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|
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| Walter Lightowler Wilkinson, Lieut., 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders—
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| A Lament from the Dead
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140
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| The Wayside Burial
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142
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| At Last Post
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143
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| Night in War Time
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144
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