Page:For remembrance, soldier poets who have fallen in the war, Adcock, 1920.djvu/327

Rh fire, especially of the grim fighting in that terrible second battle of Ypres, which will always be remembered as one of the most splendid chapters in the great story of Canada's armies. And an essay by Sir Andrew Macphail, in the same book, chronicles the life and work of McCrae, and elaborates an intimate and admirable full-length character study of the man. Always a hard worker, he established a sound reputation in medicine and natural science between 1900 and 1914, but amid his multifarious activities retained his delight in social life and found time to make many friends, who loved as much as they honoured him. He wrote largely on medical subjects; apart from these articles, and his verse, letters and diaries, he left few writings and, as Sir Andrew frankly admits, 'in these there is nothing remarkable by reason of thought or expression. He could not write prose. Fine as was his ear for verse he could not produce the finer rhythm of prose, which comes from the fall of proper words in proper sequence. He did not scrutinise