Page:Poems of the Great War - Cunliffe.djvu/90

 64 LINCOLN COLCORD

Countless miles of indomitable marching men; {Our country calls ! Our country, and our King !)

Behold the front, the million-manned intrenchments,

continent-spanning ; The infinite detail of day-works and night-works ; The burrowing, roofing, screening, the placing of

barbed-wire entanglements ; The stealthy advance in the darkness, the hasty

and desperate digging-in under fire ; The shifting and rushing forward of artillery, the

lashing of horses, the running of wires for

communication ; The searchlights feeling afar through the night, like

cold white fingers ; The life of the trenches, after all is completed ; The hidden underground chambers, the well-con- cealed passages, the bomb-proof quarters; The men laughing and singing, some of them making

music on simple instruments, some playing

cards, some smoking and talking ; Passing backwards and forwards, eating, sleeping,

fighting, or taking their leisure, all out of sight,

in tunnels and cavities below the surface : A serious new game for earnest, grown-up children.

(Hark, hark ! Aloft — look up ; A great bird sails across the sky, with loud and strident whirr of wings ;

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