Who's for the trench-
Are you, my laddie?
Who'll follow French-
Will you, my laddie?
...
We know that you’re sportsmen, with reason,
At footer and cricket you’re crack;
I haven’t forgotten the season
When we curled up before the “All Blacks.”
...
I wanted a muff
On an up-to-date scale,
Of some soft fluffy stuff,
With a head and a tail;
...
It hangs on the wall, a trifle battered,
The wire is warped and the lining tattered.
And the leather inside shows speakingly how
It’s been wet with the sweat of a soldier’s brow.
...
Shining pins that dart and click
In the fireside’s sheltered peace
Check the thoughts the cluster thick -
...
Darkness expectant, discreet
Only a lamp here and there,
Gloom in the clattering street,
Stygian black in the square;
...
SOLDIER lad, on the sodden ground,
Sailor lad on the seas,
Can't you hear a little clicketty sound
...
Not theirs the popular uniform
That takes the feminine heart by storm,
And wins soft glances, shy or warm,
The perquisites of pluck.
...
Young Thompson was a bit too short,
But hard as nails and level-headed,
And in his soul the proper sort
Of dogged pluck was deeply bedded ;
...
A Skipper of mark was Von Muller,
The humorous naval leg-puller.
With ubiquitous ease
He raided the seas
...