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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=507823" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Comrades An Episode</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Before, before he was aware<br>The 'Verey' light had risen… on the air<br>in hung glistering..<br>And he could not stay his hand<br>From moving to the barbed wire's broken strand.<br>A rifle cracked.<br>He fell.<br>Night waned. He was alone. A heavy shell<br>Whispered itself passing high, high overhead.<br>His wound was wet to his hand: for still it bled<br>On the glimmering ground.<br>Then with a slow, vain smile his wound be bound,<br>Knowing, of course, he'd not see home again -<br>Home, whose thought he put away.<br>His men<br>Whispered, 'Where's Mister Gates?' 'Out on the wire.'<br>'I'll get him,' said one….<br>Dawn blinked and the fire<br>Of the Germans heaved up and down the line.<br>'Stand to!'<br>Too late! 'I'll get him.' 'Oh the swine,<br>When we might get him in yet safe and whole!'<br>'Corp'ral didn't see um fall out on patrol<br>Or he'd a got um.' 'Ssssh'…<br>'No talking there.'<br>A whisper: ''A went down at the last flare.'<br>Meanwhile the Maxims toc-toc-tocked: their swish<br>Of bullets told death lurked against the wish.<br>No hope for him!<br>His corporal, as one shamed,<br>Vainly and helplessly his ill-luck blamed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Gates slowly saw the morn<br>Break in a rose peace through the lone thorn<br>By which he lay, and felt the dawn-wind pass<br>Whispering through the pallid, stalky grass<br>Of No-Man's Land…<br>And the tears came<br>Scaldingly sweet, more lovely than a flame.<br>He closed his eyes: he thought of home<br>And grit his teeth. He knew no help could come….</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The silent sun over the earth held sway,<br>Occasional rifles cracked, and far away<br>A heedless speck, a 'plane, slid on alone<br>Like a fly traversing a cliff of stone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'I must get back,' said Gates aloud, and heaved<br>At his body. But it lay bereaved<br>Of any power. He could not wait till night….<br>And he lay still. Blood swam across his sight.<br>Then with a groan:<br>'No luck ever. Well! I must die alone.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Occasional rifles cracked. A cloud that shone,<br>Gold-rimmed, blackened the sun and then was gone…<br>The sun still smiled. The grass sang in its play.<br>Some one whistled, 'Over the hills and far away.'<br>Gates watched silently the swift, swift sun<br>Burning his life before it was begun….</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Suddenly he heard Corporal Timmins' voice: 'Now, then,<br>'Urry up with that tea.'<br>'Hin Ginger!' 'Bill.' His men!<br>Timmins and Jones and Wilkinson ('the bard')<br>And Hughes and Simpson. It was hard<br>Not to see them: Wilkinson, stubby, grim,<br>With his 'No, sir,' 'Yes, sir,' and the slim<br>Simpson, 'Indeed, sir?' [while it seemed he winked<br>Because his smiling left eye always blinked]<br>And Corporal Timmins, straight and blonde and wise,<br>With his quiet-scanning, level, hazel eyes,<br>And all the others… tunics that didn't fit….<br>A dozen different sorts of eyes. Oh, it<br>Was hard to lie there! Yet he must. But no:<br>'I've got to die. I'll get to them. I'll go.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Inch by inch he fought, breathless and mute,<br>Dragging his carcase like a famished brute….<br>His head was hammering and his eyes were dim,<br>A bloody sweat seemed to ooze out of him<br>And freeze along his spine… then he'd lie still<br>Before another effort of his will<br>Took him one nearer yard.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The parapet was reached.<br>He could not rise to it. A look-out screeched,<br>'Mr. Gates!'<br>Three figures in one breath<br>Leaped up. Two figures fell in toppling death;<br>And Gates was lifted in. 'Who's hit?' said he.<br>'Timmins and Jones.' 'Why did they that for me?<br>I'm gone already!' Gently they laid him prone<br>And silently watched.<br>He twitched. They heard him moan,<br>'Why for me?' His eyes roamed round and none replied.<br>'I see it was alone I should have died.'<br>They shook their heads. Then, 'Is the doctor here?'<br>'He's comin', sir, he's hurryin', no fear.'<br>'No good….<br>'Lift me.' They lifted him.<br>He smiled and held his arms out to the dim,<br>And in a moment passed beyond their ken,<br>Hearing him whisper, 'O my men, my men!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Robert+Nichols">Robert Nichols</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=507823" data-title="Comrades An Episode de Robert Nichols" data-description="Before, before he was aware
The 'Verey' light had risen… on the air
in hung glistering..
And he could not stay his hand
From moving to the barbed wire's broken strand.
A rifle cracked.
He fell.
Night waned. He was alone. A heavy shell
Whispered ..."></div>
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