Page:Poems of the Great War - Cunliffe.djvu/89

 The immense stores of provisions at the depot, the stacks of clothing and other necessities, the huge piles of fodder and grain for the horses ;

The flaring illuminations, the sweating gangs work- ing beneath them, ceaselessly receiving, sorting, distributing ;

The field guns, the hea\y artillery, their ponderous steady movements through the villages ;

The stout-wheeled wagons full of dangerous, costly ammunition ;

The roaring trains, arriving and departing, some laden with supplies, some packed with hu- manity, alive or dead ;

The vast and systematic commissariat, the grist of war.

6.

Behold the columns, advancing, advancing, ad- vancing ;

Tramping steadily onward, seen behind on the hills, and seen ahead to the distant turn of the road ;

Streaming along the valleys, gaining and crossing the passes, flanking the mountain ranges, net- ting the land with a lethal web ;

Accoutrements flashing and jangling, thunder of tread, regular motion swaying and undulating the lines ;

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