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Exiled in a kilt

War Poetry

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I dont read much Poetry (except Crichton Smith & Burns) I do however read War Poetry. A couple of my favourites are:

Recruitment (E.A.Mackintosh)

Lads, you're wanted,
Go and help.
On the railway carriage wall
Stuck the poster
and I thought of the hands
that penned the call.

Fat civilians wishing they
Could go and fight the Hun;
Can't you see them
Thanking God they're over forty one.

Girls with feathers, vulgar songs,
Washy verse on England's need
God and don't we damn-well know
How the message ought to read.

Lads, you're wanted, over there
Shiver in the morning dew
More poor devils, like yourselves
Waiting to be killed by you.

When There Is Peace (Austin Dobson)

"When there is Peace our land no more
Will be the land we knew of yore."
Thus do our facile seers foretell
The truth that none can buy or see
And e'en the wisest must ignore.
When we have bled at every pore,
Shall we still strive for gear and store?
Will it be Heaven? Will it be Hell,
When there is Peace?

This let us pray for, this implore:
That all base dreams thrust out at door,
We may in loftier aims excel
And, like men waking from a spell,
Grow stronger, nobler, than before,
When there is Peace.
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