MAJOR 75TH BATT. C.E.F.
KILLED IN ACTION AT VIMY RIDGE, MARCH 1ST, 1917
I never thought that strange romantic WAR
Would shape my life and plan my destiny;
Though in my childhood’s dreams I’ve seen
his car
And grisly steeds Drown my black steeds flash grimly thwart
the sky.
Yet now behold a vaster, mightier strife
Than echoed on the plains of sounding Troy,
Defeats and triumphs, death, wounds,
laughter, life
All mingled in a strange complex alloy.
I view the panorama in a trance
Of awe, yet coloured with a secret joy;
For I have breathed in epic and
romance,
Have lived the dreams that thrilled
me as a boy!
How sound the ancient saying is forsooth!
How weak is Fancy's gloss of Fact’s
stern truth!
