Poems: New and Old (Newbolt)/A Letter from the Front

by Henry Newbolt

A Letter From the Front

 

I was out early to-day, spying aboutFrom the top of a haystack—such a lovely morning—And when I mounted again to canter backI saw across a field in the broad sunlightA young gunner subaltern, stalking alongWith a rook-rifle held at the ready and—would you believe it?—A domestic cat, soberly marching behind him.

So I laughed, and felt quite well-disposed to the youngster,And shouted out "The top of the morning" to him,And wished him "Good sport!"—and then I rememberedMy rank, and his, and what I ought to be doing;And I rode nearer, and added, "I can only supposeYou have not seen the Commander-in-Chief's ordersForbidding English officers to annoy their AlliesBy hunting and shooting."But he stood and salutedAnd said earnestly, "I beg your pardon, sir,I was only going out to shoot a sparrowTo feed my cat with." So there was the whole picture—The lovely early morning, the occasional shellScreeching and scattering past us, the empty landscape—Empty, except for the young gunner salutingAnd the cat, anxiously watching his every movement.

I may be wrong, and I may have told it badly,But it struck me as being extremely ludicrous.