Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/123

 Y

��Wilson MacDonald

Born at Cheapside, Ontario, in 1880. Educated at Port Dover Public School, at Woodstock College, and at McMaster Uni versity.

THE GIRL BEHIND THE MAN BEHIND THE

GUN

OU have seen the line of khaki swinging grandly down

the street;

You have heard the band blare out Brittanic songs: You have read a ton of papers and you ve thrown them

at your feet,

And your brain s a battlefield for fighting throngs. You have cheered for Tommy Atkins and you ve yelled

for Jack Canuck ;

You have praised the French and Belgians, every one ; But I m rhyming here a measure to the valour and the

pluck Of the Girl behind the Man behind the Gun.

There s a harder game than fighting, there s a deeper wound by far

Than the bayonet or the bullet ever tore ; And a patient little woman wears upon her heart a scar

Which the lonesome years will keep for evermore. There are bands and bugles crying and the horses madly ride,

And in passion are the trenches lost or won ; [side But SHE battles in the silence with no comrade at her

Does the Girl behind the Man behind the Gun.

They are singing songs in Flanders and there s music on

the wind,

They are shouting for their country and their king; But the hallways yearn for music in the homes they left

behind,

For the mother of a soldier does not sing. [foes,

In the silence of the night-time, mid a ring of hidden

And without a bugle cry to cheer her on, She is fighting fiercer battles than a soldier ever knows her triumph is an open grave, at dawn.

�� �