SELECTED VERSE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21200, 24 August 1940, Page 11 (Supplement)

SELECTED VERSE

BUGLER AT MEN IN GATE Down shattered roads to the Menin Gate he came, Hastening as one who flees before the foe; And seeing him I thought that all was lost, And I beheld the messenger of Woe. As he drew near I saw his eyes were grim, Fixed with a purpose that had conquered flesh; So that I stayed my feet from panic flight, And waited his approach, hope born afresh. “ I come to sound Reveille at the Menin Gate,” He cried, and raising bugle straightway blew A call that swept the Arch of Memory And echoed far to meet the morning dew. At that great sound the stone-cut names awoke,. Resolved themselves to ghosts, from ghosts to men, Wiped from short-rested eyes the blur of sleep And marched again to meet a foe of olden ken. Seeing this mighty host I knew that we Who build Menin Gate do ill to doubt Our victory, and that, in days to come, Children will wonder what we feared about. —Stephen Mogridge.

A MESSAGE FOR TODAY We're fighting for our lives—so runs the cry. It is not true; not for our lives we fight. For, conquered, millions of us would not die, But still live on, beneath the conqueror’s might; * Live on in our own country, ours no more; Amid old scenes, their meaning at an end; In servitude to all that we abhor, Sighing for all that we could not defend. To die or conquer is the soldier’s lot. To us at home, a diff’rent choice is given— Either to strive (although we fire no shot) Each at his task, as ne’er before we’ve striven; Or else of land, laws, liberty bereft, To find our lives are all that we have left. —“ M. 5.,” in the Daily Telegraph. THE CHANGELING If fairies jealous of King Arthur’s fame Once, in the cradle, changed his eldest son, Surely in Elfland with a fairy name There fights some hero till his war is won. —Lord Dunsany