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Guards Came Through and other Poems

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<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <p class="page-break center" style="font-size: x-large; margin: 6em auto; line-height: 1.6;">THE GUARDS CAME THROUGH<br/> <small>AND OTHER POEMS</small></p> <div class="page-break" style="max-width: 26em; margin: 4em auto; border: 1px solid black;"> <p class="center" style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: underline;">BY THE SAME AUTHOR</p> <ul> <li>SONGS OF ACTION</li> <li>SONGS OF THE ROAD</li> <li style="margin-top: 1em;">THE WHITE COMPANY</li> <li>MICAH CLARKE</li> <li>THE REFUGEES</li> <li>RODNEY STONE</li> <li>UNCLE BERNAC</li> <li>THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES</li> <li>MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES</li> <li>HIS LAST BOW: SOME REMINISCENCES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES</li> <li>THE ADVENTURES OF BRIGADIER GERARD</li> <li>THE SIGN OF FOUR</li> <li>SIR NIGEL</li> <li>CAPTAIN OF THE POLESTAR</li> <li>ROUND THE RED LAMP</li> <li>THE STARK MUNRO LETTERS</li> <li>THE TRAGEDY OF THE “KOROSKO”</li> <li>A DUET, WITH AN OCCASIONAL CHORUS</li> <li>THE GREEN FLAG, AND OTHER STORIES</li> <li>THE ADVENTURES OF GERARD</li> <li>THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES</li> <li>THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES</li> <li>THROUGH THE MAGIC DOOR</li> <li>ROUND THE FIRE STORIES</li> <li>THE LAST GALLEY</li> <li>THE LOST WORLD</li> <li>THE VALLEY OF FEAR</li> <li>DANGER! AND OTHER STORIES</li> </ul> <p class="center">LONDON: JOHN MURRAY</p> </div> <h1>THE GUARDS CAME THROUGH<br/> AND OTHER POEMS</h1> <p class="center" style="font-size: larger;">BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE</p> <p class="center" style="font-size: smaller; line-height: 1.5">AUTHOR OF<br/> “SONGS OF ACTION,” “SONGS OF THE ROAD”</p> <p class="center" style="margin-top: 6em; line-height: 1.5;">LONDON<br/> JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.<br/> 1919</p> <p class="page-break center small-caps">All Rights Reserved</p> <h2><SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_5" title="5"> </SPAN>PREFACE</h2> <p><span class="small-caps">I must</span> apologize for the size of this booklet, which can only be justified on the grounds that there is some demand for the contents as recitations. I hope presently to combine whatever is worth preserving in my three volumes of verse, so as to make a single collection.</p> <p class="right small-caps">Arthur Conan Doyle.</p> <h2><SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_7" title="7"> </SPAN>CONTENTS</h2> <table id="toc"> <tr> <th> </th> <th class="right">PAGE</th> </tr> <tr> <td>THE GUARDS CAME THROUGH</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_9">9</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>VICTRIX</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_13">13</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>THOSE OTHERS</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_16">16</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>HAIG IS MOVING</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_20">20</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>THE GUNS IN SUSSEX</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_22">22</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>YPRES</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_26">26</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>GROUSING</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_37">37</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>THE VOLUNTEER</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_40">40</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>THE NIGHT PATROL</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_44">44</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td><SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_8" title="8"> </SPAN>THE WRECK ON LOCH MCGARRY</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_47">47</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>THE BIGOT</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_55">55</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>THE ATHABASCA TRAIL</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_62">62</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>RAGTIME!</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_65">65</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>CHRISTMAS IN WARTIME</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_68">68</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>LINDISFAIRE</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_70">70</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>A PARABLE</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_75">75</SPAN></td> </tr> <tr> <td>FATE</td> <td class="right"><SPAN href="#Page_76">76</SPAN></td> </tr> </table> <h2><SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_9" title="9"> </SPAN>THE GUARDS CAME THROUGH</h2> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line"><span class="small-caps">Men</span> of the Twenty-first,</div> <div class="line indent2">Up by the Chalk Pit Wood,</div> <div class="line">Weak from our wounds and our thirst,</div> <div class="line indent2">Wanting our sleep and our food</div> <div class="line">After a day and a night.</div> <div class="line indent2">God! shall I ever forget?</div> <div class="line">Beaten and broke in the fight,</div> <div class="line indent2">But sticking it, sticking it yet,</div> <div class="line">Trying to hold the line,</div> <div class="line indent2">Fainting and spent and done;</div> <div class="line">Always the thud and the whine,</div> <div class="line indent2">Always the yell of the Hun.</div> <div class="line">Northumberland, Lancaster, York,</div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_10" title="10"> </SPAN> <div class="line indent2">Durham and Somerset,</div> <div class="line">Fighting alone, worn to the bone,</div> <div class="line indent2">But sticking it, sticking it yet.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">Never a message of hope,</div> <div class="line indent2">Never a word of cheer,</div> <div class="line">Fronting Hill 70's shell-swept slope,</div> <div class="line indent2">With the dull, dead plain in our rear;</div> <div class="line">Always the shriek of the shell,</div> <div class="line indent2">Always the roar of the burst,</div> <div class="line">Always the tortures of Hell,</div> <div class="line indent2">As waiting and wincing we cursed</div> <div class="line">Our luck, the guns, and the Boche.</div> <div class="line indent2">When our Corporal shouted “Stand to!”</div> <div class="line">And I hear some one cry, “Clear the front for the Guards!”—</div> <div class="line indent2">And the Guards came through.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">Our throats they were parched and hot,</div> <div class="line indent2">But, Lord! if you'd heard the cheer,</div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_11" title="11"> </SPAN> <div class="line">Irish, Welsh and Scot,</div> <div class="line indent2">Coldstream and Grenadier—</div> <div class="line">Two Brigades, if you please,</div> <div class="line indent2">Dressing as straight as a hem.</div> <div class="line">We, we were down on our knees,</div> <div class="line indent2">Praying for us and for them,</div> <div class="line">Praying with tear-wet cheek,</div> <div class="line indent2">Praying with outstretched hand.</div> <div class="line">Lord! I could speak for a week,</div> <div class="line indent2">But how could you understand?</div> <div class="line">How could your cheeks be wet?</div> <div class="line indent2">Such feelin's don't come to you;</div> <div class="line">But how can me or my mates forget</div> <div class="line indent2">How the Guards came through?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">“Five yards left extend!”</div> <div class="line indent2">It passed from rank to rank,</div> <div class="line">And line after line, with never a bend,</div> <div class="line indent2">And a touch of the London swank.</div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_12" title="12"> </SPAN> <div class="line">A trifle of swank and dash,</div> <div class="line indent2">Cool as a home parade,</div> <div class="line">Twinkle, glitter and flash,</div> <div class="line indent2">Flinching never a shade,</div> <div class="line">With the shrapnel right in their face,</div> <div class="line indent2">Doing their Hyde Park stunt,</div> <div class="line">Swinging along at an easy pace,</div> <div class="line indent2">Arms at the trail, eyes front.</div> <div class="line">Man! it was great to see!</div> <div class="line indent2">Man! it was great to do!</div> <div class="line">It's a cot, and a hospital ward for me,</div> <div class="line">But I'll tell them in Blighty wherever I be,</div> <div class="line indent2">How the Guards came through.</div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />

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