Guards Came Through and other Poems

<h2><SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_16" title="16"> </SPAN>THOSE OTHERS</h2> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line"><span class="small-caps">Where</span> are those others?&mdash;the men who stood</div> <div class="line">In the first wild spate of the German flood,</div> <div class="line">And paid full price with their heart's best blood</div> <div class="line indent2">For the saving of you and me:</div> <div class="line">French's Contemptibles, haggard and lean,</div> <div class="line">Allenby's lads of the cavalry screen,</div> <div class="line">Gunners who fell in Battery L,</div> <div class="line indent2">And Guardsmen of Landrecies?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">Where are those others who fought and fell,</div> <div class="line">Outmanned, outgunned and scant of shell,</div> <div class="line">On the deadly curve of the Ypres hell,</div> <div class="line indent2">Barring the coast to the last?</div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_17" title="17"> </SPAN> <div class="line">Where are our laddies who died out there,</div> <div class="line">From Poelcapelle to Festubert,</div> <div class="line">When the days grew short and the poplars bare</div> <div class="line indent2">In the cold November blast?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">For us their toil and for us their pain,</div> <div class="line">The sordid ditch in the sodden plain,</div> <div class="line">The Flemish fog and the driving rain,</div> <div class="line">The cold that cramped and froze;</div> <div class="line">The weary night, the chill bleak day,</div> <div class="line">When earth was dark and sky was grey,</div> <div class="line">And the ragged weeds in the dripping clay</div> <div class="line indent2">Were all God's world to those.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">Where are those others in this glad time,</div> <div class="line">When the standards wave and the joy-bells chime,</div> <div class="line">And London stands with outstretched hands</div> <div class="line indent2">Waving her children in?</div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_18" title="18"> </SPAN> <div class="line">Athwart our joy still comes the thought</div> <div class="line">Of the dear dead boys, whose lives have bought</div> <div class="line">All that sweet victory has brought</div> <div class="line indent2">To us who lived to win.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">To each his dreams, and mine to me,</div> <div class="line">But as the shadows fall I see</div> <div class="line">That ever-glorious company&mdash;</div> <div class="line indent2">The men who bide out there.</div> <div class="line">Rifleman, Highlander, Fusilier,</div> <div class="line">Airman and Sapper and Grenadier,</div> <div class="line">With flaunting banner and wave and cheer,</div> <div class="line indent2">They flow through the darkening air.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">And yours are there, and so are mine,</div> <div class="line">Rank upon rank and line on line,</div> <div class="line">With smiling lips and eyes that shine,</div> <div class="line indent2">And bearing proud and high.</div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_19" title="19"> </SPAN> <div class="line">Past they go with their measured tread,</div> <div class="line">These are the victors, these&mdash;the dead!</div> <div class="line">Ah, sink the knee and bare the head</div> <div class="line indent2">As the hallowed host goes by!</div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />