Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/181

 William Pike Osborne

To mock the Grand Armada s might and dare the whole, wide world.

Such men as died when Grenville did upon a wreck- strewn sea,

Or followed Richard Lion-Heart in Christian chivalry, To fight in Holy Palestine ; such men as fought and fell In Balaclava s famous charge against a very hell.

O Hero Souls, the men that charged in Scarlett s famed

brigade, Were heroes, yet they never faced such murderous

fusillade As swept our ranks! Leonidas died dauntless and

unbowed, God-like in valour, yet he knew no deadly poison cloud.

O ye that sleep on Flanders Plain, we search the scrolls

of Time Where lettered in memorial gold, shine forth all deeds

sublime, And none are writ more bright than yours, our own

Beloved Dead, Before whose tomb in grief and pride your country

bows its head!

Alone, afar on Langemarck s field where desolation

swirled Through crowded, desperate days ye fought the Battle

of the World; Yea, where the Hunnish cohorts swarmed in rage and

fury blind, Lit with the flame of God ye fought the Fight of all

Mankind.

O ye whom we have loved and lost, that sleep on alien strand,

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