Guards Came Through and other Poems

<h2><SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_68" title="68"> </SPAN>CHRISTMAS IN WARTIME</h2> <h3>1916</h3> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line"><span class="small-caps">Cheer</span> oh, comrades, we can bide the blast</div> <div class="line indent2">And face the gloom until it shall grow lighter.</div> <div class="line">What though one Christmas should be overcast,</div> <div class="line indent2">If duty done makes all the others brighter.</div> </div></div> <h3>1917<br/> <small>THE LAST LAP</small></h3> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">We seldom were quick off the mark,</div> <div class="line indent2">And sprinting was never our game;</div> <div class="line">But when it's insistence and hold-for-the-distance,</div> <div class="line indent2">We've never been beat at that same.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_69" title="69"> </SPAN> <div class="line">The first lap was all to the Hun,</div> <div class="line indent2">At the second we still saw his back;</div> <div class="line">But we knew how to wait and to spurt down the straight,</div> <div class="line indent2">Till we left him dead-beat on the track.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">He's a bluffer for all he is worth,</div> <div class="line indent2">But he's winded and done to the core,</div> <div class="line">So the last lap is here, with the tape very near,</div> <div class="line indent2">And the old colours well to the fore.</div> </div></div> <h3>1918</h3> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line">Not merry! No&mdash;the words would grate,</div> <div class="line indent2">With gaps at every table-side,</div> <div class="line">But chastened, thankful, calm, sedate,</div> <div class="line indent2">Be your victorious Christmas-tide.</div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />