Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/243

 John Stuart Thomson

Author of Estabelle and Other Verse, Day s Song Eulalive The Chinese, China Revolutioned etc. Born in Montreal^ in 1872, and educated in local schools and at McGill University..- Has travelled extensively. An authority on Far Eastern questions. Lives in Nezv Jersey, U.S.A.

THE CHARGE OF THE CANADIAN CAVALRY AT MOREUIL, FRANCE

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��HERE was champing of bits, When the trumpets blew loud

For a charge on the pits ;

For a dash through the cloud

Of gray smoke on the field.

Not a man of us there But had children to shield,

Or a home in his care.

But the ring of the steel Bad our courage leap high;

And the trumpets last peal Made it glorious to die.

With a wheel to the right, We first rode four abreast,

Till the foe came in sight.

Ye that watched ! tell the rest.

Our good chargers we spurred, And our keen blades rang true ;

Round our heads the shells whirred, As we cut our way through.

Though they fought round their guns. Till their sword hilts grew hot ;

(And a foeman who runs Is a dog to be shot)

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