Page:Patriotic pieces from the Great War, Jones, 1918.djvu/140

136 LANGEMARCK AT YPRES

This is the ballad of Langemarck,

A story of glory and might;

Of the vast Hun horde, and Canada's part

In the great, grim fight.

It was April fair on the Flanders Fields,

But the dreadest April then,

That ever the years, in their fateful flight,

Had brought to this world of men.

North and east, a monster wall,

The mighty Hun ranks lay,

With fort on fort, and iron-ringed trench,

Menacing, grim and gray.

And south and west, like a serpent of fire,

Serried the British lines,

And in between, the dying and dead,

And the stench of blood, and the trampled mud,

On the fair, sweet Belgian vines.

And far to the eastward, harnessed and taut,

Like a scimitar, shining and keen,

Gleaming out of that ominous gloom,

Old France's hosts were seen.

When out of the grim Hun lines one night,

There rolled a sinister smoke;—