They buried me today at last
I fell in war nine decades past,
So proud I was to have my chance
To stem the German tide in France.
Two years in I joined the war
To die beyond that foreign shore,
My regiment, the Sixty-first,
In Fromelles we came off worst.
The Somme lay fifty miles south
The news was spread by word of mouth,
As battle there for weeks had raged
The Hun elsewhere must be engaged.
Three thousand men from England's heart
We couldn't wait to play our part,
Six thousand Ausies at our side
There we stood, a human tide.
19th July, nineteen sixteen
Young but eager, raw yet keen,
A full nine thousand, primed to fight
So many would not last the night.
The 'Sugar Loaf' we were to take
Alas that goal we did not make,
Torn apart by German guns,
Two countries lost so many sons.
Lance Corporal Pratt stood at my side
We fell as one, as one we died,
Buried in a grave unfit
In Peasant Wood in an unmarked pit.
In 'Dud Corner' there exists
A sad memorial which lists,
Twenty thousand names in stone
Of those like me in grave unknown.
Ninety years and more had passed
A chance for hope arose at last,
To my grave the diggers came
My history perchance to claim.
With twelve score others I was found
They raised our bodies from the ground,
I have no name, I'm still unknown
For now my hopes have sadly flown.
At least beneath a cross I lie
And stranger if you should walk by,
As you pass my place of rest
Please know this, I gave my best.
COPYRIGHT D M PAMMENT 1st FEBRUARY 2010
Comments
kheldar | February 1, 2010 - 23:19
On Saturday reburials took place of the first of 250 British and Australian soldiers from the First World War. Discovered in 2008 in a mass grave at Fromelles in France, they died in the Battle of Fromelle, 19th-20th July 1916. For more info, please see the following websites:
http://www.cwgc.org/fromelles/?page=english/homepage
http://www.cwgc.org/search/cemetery_details.aspx?cemetery=58700&mode=1
Silver Spun Sand | February 2, 2010 - 00:00
Lest we forget.
Tina
shoe | February 2, 2010 - 11:59
The research and attention to detail is excellent as usual, I would expect nothing less of you,:~} but it's your ability to personalise that brings this bit of history to life for me, I like the last stanza especially,
kheldar | February 2, 2010 - 12:16
Shoe, as ever I stand blushing before you, thank you once more. I sometimes have trouble finding the right way to end a poem (hence my habit of repeating the opening) but I felt this ending needed no embelishment.
David :--)