Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/180

 William Pike Osborne

Maple trees will be planted at Langemarck to commemorate the gallant stand of the Canadians.

ON Flanders Plain in summer-time the blood-red poppy waves : More brightly now its torch is blown above Canadian

graves. On Flanders Plain when guns are hushed, pledge of our

mindful grief

And emblem of the land they loved, shall flame the Maple Leaf.

O Hero Souls, Beloved Dead, yours was the Spartan

mould Wherein were shaped those valiant men that fought in

days of old: Such men as sailed the Argo forth to win the Golden

Fleece, As gave to Rome her ancient name, her Glory unto

Greece !

O Hero Souls, twas men like you who smile at death

and fate That beat the proud Etruscans down before the Roman

gate : That stood in strait Thermopylae with thrice a hundred

spears, And, holding back the Persian hordes, provoked the

tyrant s tears !

O Hero Souls, neath Flanders Plain, of spirit such as

this Were those who sped the triremes on at sea-born

Salamis ; Were these that died wi^h Winkelried or Drake s wild

sails unfurled

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