FRANCE'DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12069, 26 July 1917, Page 2

FRANCE'DAY.

To-day they rally, to-day they ride, tne Hosts of True Romance, The hoys, v.-ho yearned and burned for this—"before vouth passed, one chance To fisht "for 'their high hearts' highest dream— .... For h-er fans, glimpsed by the torch light 3 trlcaai — Longi they have sought her, very long; today they have found hex—France. She is the ?word without a stain, Hers the Virgin's face, S'ho is tho lost Alsace-Lorraine And the victory of Saniothrace. Out of the east and out of the- west, whereever knights errant were, Out of the north came a shining lance-—from iho south a sword for her, And France, whore the lino of battle stood, Grcet.-d the far-called brotherhood, And Roland rodo from Ronccsvallea to meet the Anzacs there. She is the guidon Roland knew, She tho Maid of War, She is the tons the trumpets blew At Ivrv to Navarre. They are content and glad, these boys, they have slaked thoir hearts afire, But we, ah we, oh what of us who wait and watch and tire, Who acho for France in her long distress, And fret and fret in helplessness?— Gad liar, had pity on us this day, He baa given us our desire. She is a banner flown above A ship that goes to sea-, Sho has the eyes of the boys we love, And she is Bravery. To-day they call us, yea also us—lo, where the ranks divide I They make place in the Hosts of True Romance, with Roland side by side, This day they march in the Great Advance— For Franco, for France, Lord God, for France, For the sa'iro of Franco, for the world set free—and our hearts' need satisfied. —JEAN CURJLEWIS (Ethel Turner).