Rail-Head


 * Matches and candles, and (good for you and me)
 * Cocoa and coffee and biscuits by the tin,
 * Sardines, condensed milk, petrol and paraffin.
 * Truck-load and train load and lorries by the score,
 * Mule-cart and limber, "What are yer waitin' for?"
 * Dusty and dirty and full of noisy din,
 * "If 'e fights upon' is stomach, this' ere army oughter win!"
 * Someville is the Rail-head, full of noisy din,
 * Full of men and horses and mules and paraffin,
 * Frozen meat and apricots and peaches-à-la-tin,
 * Shunting up and down, across, and round and out and in.
 * But down beyond the Rail-head and village of that name,
 * Are green woods, where the cuckoo is calling just the same,
 * As he used to call in April, in the years before the war,
 * And he calls the same as ever now and doesn't care a straw,
 * Down the green and leafy lanes, where Jean and his Marcelle
 * In spring-time would wander, their loving vows to tell.
 * But petite Marcelle now is up, and working on the farm,
 * With only the memory of Jean's encircling arm,
 * For comfort, chilly comfort, can little Marcelle draw,
 * And cuckoos are calling, and never care a straw;
 * And Tommy says that girl Marcelle, indeed she is "no bonn,"
 * Because Marcelle "no promenade" with any mother's son;
 * Because petite Marcelle, he says, is always cross and sad,
 * When cuckoos are calling and all the woods are glad.
 * And madame, the mother of dark-eyed, sad Marcelle,
 * "She ain't what yer'd call now a petite demoiselle,
 * "Gorblimmy, she ain't no!" says Tommy. "She's narpoo! A-scoldin' er daughter, an' makin' such terdoo!"
 * But mother and daughter, tho' Tommy doesn't see,
 * Are held by the bond of a common memory,
 * A husband, a father, a lover, and a son,
 * The war barely started, and all were up and gone,
 * And mother and daughter now work upon the farms,
 * With only the memory of those encircling arms.


 * Someville is the Rail-head for tea and bully beef,
 * Dusty and dirty, with all the woods in leaf
 * In April, sweet April, and all the world at war,
 * And cuckoos a-calling and never care a straw.