We started at once to dig our trenches, half of my platoon stepping forward abreast, the men being placed an arm's length apart. After laying their rifles down, barrels pointing to the enemy, a line was drawn behind the row of rifles and parallel to it.
quote by Fritz Kreisler

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
To Roumania
Rifles of the Rear Guard,
Rattling through the rain,
Falling back and falling back
To make a stand again –
Rifles of the Rear Guard,
Shall you die in vain?
Rifles of the Rear Guard.
In the cold and wet;
Rifles of the Rear Guard,
We’re coming – do not fret!
The rifles of the Rear Guard
Shall be the Vanguard yet.
poem by Henry Lawson

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Not the torturer will scare me, nor the body's final fall, nor the barrels of death's rifles, nor the shadows on the wall, nor the night when to the ground the last dim star of pain, is hurled but the blind indifference of a merciless, unfeeling world.
quote by Roger Waters

Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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World war one
War of the great powers
Over four countries took part
Rifles were also used to kill in the war
Land was taken from countries
Dead men rotted in the trenches
Weapons were used to kill
Although people got shell shocks
Recruitment was one of the most things men had to do
On water
Navy's battle first shot was in Malawi
Even though war killed us all
poem by Tanaka Chirombo

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The police had already found the cartridges and the rifles and the bag in the Texas School Depository and within a half an hour, those facts were known.
quote by John Sherman Cooper

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Past Life War Memories
flash back to World War I
past life death experiences
he was a famous war poet
when he was but three or four
his father's mother used to call
him 'old tot' and 'little old man'
she told his mother and various
others that he was an old soul
had walked this world before
she was supposedly never wrong
she read tarot cards and did table
knockings later his primary school
teacher who married his uncle
believed this incredible same thing
he used to draw pictures of trenches
at primary school age then shelling
heavy shelling of all drawn trenches
war in trenches then everyone died
past lives when real are locked
for good reason this life is important
what we do achieve in this life
anthems are silent for doomed youths
for soldiers who died as slaughtered cattle
pierced by ‘stuttering rifles' rapid rattle'
he had a special strange feeling for poetic lines
in a few heart strung poems playing poignant fines
haunting memories strung within solemn mask soul
from the first time he heard those poems
the words echoed in his soul as his own
but some souls born share linked purposes
it was also a poetic form he could easily write
choose not too it seemed too close to the bone
in each time select purposes are need achieved
poem by Terence George Craddock

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As far as your Rifles Cover
Do you think, you slaves of a thousand years to poverty, wealth and pride,
You can crush the spirit that has been free in a land that's new and wide?
When you've scattered the last of the farmer bands, and the war for a while is over,
You will hold the land – ay, you'll hold the land – the land that your rifles cover.
Till your gold has levelled each mountain range where a wounded man can hide,
Till your gold has lighted the moonless night on the plains where the rebels ride;
Till the future is proved, and the past is bribed from the son of the land's dead lover –
You may hold the land – you may hold the land just as far as your rifles cover.
poem by Henry Lawson

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Bullet
I like that,
(laughs) I saw how you did that scott (laughs)
Like whats his name there
Drummer of 15 drums there
Whats his name?
Excuse me now Ive got a call
Ill take this call from valhalla*
Please tell my friends from outer space
You are my son youll take my place
And if the revolution comes
Ive got some good friends there
Take my place after all you are my son
You take the moon Ill take the sun
And by the way if the revolution comes
Please take my rifles and take my guns
A single bullet loaded in each one
And if you dont like my melody
Ill sing it in a major key
Ill sing it very happily
And if
Everybody is
All aboard
Lets take it back
To that minor chord
You are my son youll take my place
Be still my friends from outer space
Ill take this call from valhalla
Excuse me now I got a call
Ive got some good friends there
Revolution comes
A single bullet loaded in each one
Please take my rifles and take my guns
And by the way
If the revolution comes
Take my rifles
Take my guns
You take my place because you are my son
Excuse me now Ill take the sun
Ill take my place in valhalla
And if the revolution comes
Please take my guns
*(viking heaven)
song performed by by Frank Black

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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What Have the Cavalry Done?
What have the cavalry done?
Cantered and trotted about,
Routin' the enemy out,
Causin' the beggars to run!
And we tramped along in the blazin' heat,
Over the veldt on our weary feet.
Tramp, tramp, tramp
Under the blazin' sun,
With never the sight of a bloomin' Boer,
'Cause they'd hunted 'em long before --
That's what the cavalry done!
What have the gunners done
Battlin' every day,
Battlin' any way.
Boers outranged 'em, but what cared they?
"Shoot and be damned," said the R.H.A.!
See! when the fight grows hot,
Under the rifles or not,
Always the order runs,
"Fetch up the bloomin' guns!"
And you'd see them great gun horses spring
To the "action front" -- and around they'd swing.
Find the range with some queer machine
"At four thousand with fuse fourteen.
Ready! Fire number one!"
Handled the battery neat and quick!
Stick to it, too! How did they stick!
Never a gunner was seen to run!
Never a gunner would leave his gun!
Not though his mates dropped all around!
Always a gunner would stand his ground.
Take the army -- the infantry,
Mounted rifles, and cavalry,
Twice the numbers I'd give away,
And I'd fight the lot with the R.H.A.,
For they showed us how a corps should be run,
That's what the gunners done!
poem by Andrew Barton Paterson

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Im Stepping Out
Woke up this morning blues around my head
No need to ask the reason why
Went to the kitchen and lit a cigarette
Blew my worries to the sky
Im stepping out
Im stepping out
Im stepping out
Im stepping out
If it dont feel right you dont have to do it
Just leave a message on the phone and tell them to screw it
After all is said and done you cant go pleasin everyone
So screw it...
Im stepping out
Im stepping out
Im stepping out baby
Im stepping out
Babys sleeping the cats have all been blessed
Aint nothing doing on tv (summer repeats)
Put on my space suit I got to look my best
Im going out to do the city
Im stepping out
Im stepping out
Im stepping out babe
Im stepping out (boogie)
Im stepping out (hold it down)
Im stepping out
Im stepping out
Gotta gotta gotta gotta get out
Im stepping out babe
Just awhile
Aint been out for days...
song performed by by Lennon John

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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We don't need more assault rifles on our streets right now.
quote by William J. Bennett

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Hogarth Experiment Part 3
Police Constable Broadworth
was sent from the station
to go to see if he could locate Joe Harper
after a frantic phone call from his surgery.
It would seem as if he had missed
several of his appointments,
which was not like Joe at all.
He cycled down the same lane
where Joe Harper’s car was parked.
He could hear his car still running.
The scene that greeted him
was not he had expected.
The car was in the lane,
but Joe Harper was no where about.
Broadworth shouted out his name,
but got no reply.
Broadworth dismounted from his bike.
He felt it strange that Jo Harper
would have left his car running.
Broadworth searched the area
after turning off the engine of the car.
Joe Harper was nowhere to be found.
It was as if he had vanished into thin air.
He put his bike in the back of the car,
then drove it to the nearest farm
and telephoned the station
to inform them what he had found.
Even though the war was over
the battery near the town
was still occupied by three men.
It was about a half a mile from the hamlet.
The three privates there
were brewing themselves a cup of tea.
A humming sound unlike anything
they had ever heard grew louder.
They stood up and grabbed their rifles.
They gazed around,
but nothing could they see.
Suddenly shadows passed over them.
Each felt a chill run down their spine.
They loaded theirs rifles and fired
as the shadows came overhead again.
They reloaded and fired a second volley.
The humming sound got louder
as if it was amplified a thousand times.
After they fired each volley
one of the soldiers fell.
There seemed no defence
from these shadows from the sky.
To be continued…
poem by David Harris

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(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone
I I I I I'm not your stepping stone
I I I I I'm not your stepping stone
You're trying to make your mark in society
Using all the tricks that you used on me.
You're reading all those high fashion magazines
The clothes you're wearin' girl are causing public scenes.
I said
I I I I I'm not your stepping stone
I I I I I'm not your stepping stone
Not your stepping stone,
Not your stepping stone.
When I first met you girl you didn't have no shoes
Now you're walking 'round like you're front page news.
You've been awful careful 'bout the friends you choose
But you won't find my name in your book of Who's Who.
I said
I I I I I'm not your stepping stone
I I I I I'm not your stepping stone
Not your stepping stone,
Not your stepping stone
song performed by by Monkees

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Four young men (a reply to Ted Hughes)
The old brown and white photograph
of my grandfather and his brothers
fading somewhat after more than a century
show four young men
with sincerity and patriotism
written all over their faces,
dressed in captured kaki war uniforms
belted across their hips
with farmer’s hats on their heads
and bandoliers crossed over their chests,
and captured bayoneted
Martini Henri rifles in their hands
and I know the big old teak tree
where they stand
and one looks at his cocky best, one sharp and aware,
one earnest and sincere and all three of them
almost exactly like some cousins of mine
with the middle one closing his eyes slightly
against the bright light
with a fringe protruding from under the hat
and he could have been me
and the similarity is very striking
and at only sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen
as brothers on horses they rode to war,
and alive they all came back, thread thin
from being without food in the veldt,
with missing skin from their hands
blisters turning into open wounds
from shooting with white hot gun barrels
at forces of outnumbering large
British enemy soldiers
all marksmen, snipers and hunters
but mere farm boys.
[Note: The photograph is of my grandfather Danie Brand and his brothers. Six young men by Ted Hughes.]
poem by Gert Strydom

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Steppin' Stone
(i'm not your) steppin' stone
By tommy boyce and bobby hart
I i i i i'm not your stepping stone
I i i i i'm not your stepping stone
You're trying to make your mark in society
Your using all the tricks that you used on me.
You're reading all them high fashion magazines
The clothes you're wearin' girl are causing public scenes.
I said
I i i i i'm not your stepping stone
I i i i i'm not your stepping stone
Not your stepping stone,
Not your stepping stone.
When i first met you girl you didn't have no shoes
Now you're walking 'round like you're front page news.
You've been awful careful 'bout the friends you choose
But you won't find my name in your book of who's who.
I said
I i i i i'm not your stepping stone
I i i i i'm not your stepping stone
Not your stepping stone,
Not your stepping stone.
song performed by by Monkees

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Scottish Engineer
With eyes that searched in the dark,
Peering along the line,
Stood the grim Scotsman, Hector Clark,
Driver of "Forty-nine".
And the veldt-fire flamed on the hills ahead,
Like a blood-red beacon sign.
There was word of a fight to the north,
And a column too hardly pressed,
So they started the Highlanders forth.
Heedless of food or rest.
But the pipers gaily played,
Chanting their fierce delight,
And the armoured carriages rocked and swayed.
Laden with men of the Scots Brigade,
Hurrying up to the fight,
And the grim, grey Highland engineer
Driving them into the night.
Then a signal light glowed red,
And a picket came to the track.
"Enemy holding the line ahead;
Three of our mates we have left for dead,
Only we two got back."
And far to the north through the still night air
They heard the rifles crack.
And the boom of a gun rang out,
Like the sound of a deep appeal,
And the picket stood in doubt
By the side of the driving-wheel.
But the engineer looked down,
With his hand on the starting-bar,
"Ride ye back to the town,
Ye know what my orders are,
Maybe they're wanting the Scots Brigade
Up on those hills afar.
"I am no soldier at all,
Only an engineer;
But I could not bear that the folk should say
Over in Scotland -- Glasgow way --
That Hector Clark stayed here
With the Scots Brigade till the foe was gone,
With ever a rail to run her on.
Ready behind! Stand clear!
"Fireman, get you gone
Into the armoured train --
I will drive her alone;
One more trip -- and perhaps the last --
With a well-raked fire and an open blast;
Hark to the rifles again!"
On through the choking dark,
Never a lamp nor a light,
Never an engine spark
Showing her hurried flight,
Over the lonely plain
Rushed the great armoured train,
Hurrying up to the fight.
Then with her living freight
On to the foe she came,
And the rides snapped their hate.
And the darkness spouted flame.
Over the roar of the fray
The hungry bullets whined,
As she dashed through the foe that lay
Loading and firing blind,
Till the glare of the furnace, burning clear,
Showed them the form of the engineer
Sharply and well defined.
Through! They are safely through!
Hark to the column's cheer!
Surely the driver knew
He was to halt her here;
But he took no heed of the signals red,
And the fireman found, when he climbed ahead,
There on the door of his engine -- dead --
The Scottish Engineer!
poem by Andrew Barton Paterson

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You Made Me Just Another Stepping Stone
You claim to be all alone.
You made me just another stepping stone.
What are you trying to conquer?
Do you see the pearly gates laying beneath all that money?
Why cant you do what you love?
Is it really asking to much?
You claim to be all alone.
You made me just another stepping stone.
Is this something I'm suppose to condone.
No I won't.
No please don't.
Your starting to cry.
I can see the tears in your eyes.
This is the hardest goodbye I will ever know.
And all you can say is so, so, so what get f*cked.
You claim to be all alone.
You made me just another stepping stone.
I'm sorry but that's all gone.
The manipulation has become extremely aggravating.
No more deviations from the here and now.
I don't need the why.
For greed is the credence for it all.
Yet you still explain away.
Like I will again be the sucker of the day.
You seem vexed.
Its not that complex.
I just don't give a sh*t.
Not no more.
Not like before.
I cant believe in illusions so fake that if I touch them they might just break.
You claim to be all alone.
You made me just another stepping stone.
The seeds have been sewn.
The bait has been set. In this trap I wonder who you will get.
Will you ever love and regret.
In your eyes we met.
It was a flirtatious bet.
Words were said.
Somehow we ended up in together.
You said forever as you were trying to use me till I had nothing left.
But I knew, and I told you it just doesn't work that way.
Listen to the words I say.
You claim to be all alone.
You made me just another stepping stone.
Just another stepping stone.
So be alone and ask nothing more of me.
Please don't lie and say you loved me.
Antagonistic and unrealistic.
You claim to be all alone, all alone.
You made me just another stepping stone.
poem by Ace Of Black Hearts

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We had times in '66 and '67 when we would pick up a platoon of privates out of the receiving barracks the week before we even graduated the platoon that we were on!
quote by R. Lee Ermey

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Im Stepping Out
A one, a two, a one, two, three, four!
This here is the story about a househusband who, you know,
Just want to get out of the house, has been looking at you,
You, know, the kids, days and days, hes been watching the
Kitchen and screwing around or whatever it has to be till
Hes gone crazy!
Woke up this morning, blues around my head.
No need to ask the reason why.
Went to the kitchen and lit a cigarette,
Blew my worries to the sky.
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out, yeh!
If it dont feel right, you dont have to do it.
Just leave a message on the phone and tell them to screw it.
And after all is said and done,
You cant go pleasin evryone so screw it.
Uh-uh-uh,
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out, baby,
Im stepping out.
Babys sleeping, the cats have all been blessed,
Aint nothing doing on tv. (some old repeat!)
Put on my spacesuit, I got to look my best,
Im going out to do the city.
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out, babe,
Im stepping out.
Boogie!
One more!
Im stepping out, hold it down,
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out,
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta get out!
Im stepping out, babe, just for a while.
Aint been out for days! got to do it tonight!
Give me a break! give me a break! gotta get out!
Gotta get out!
Just for a while, just for the night.
Ill be in before one, or two, or three.
Goodbye.
song performed by by Yoko Ono

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Im Stepping Out
A one, a two, a one, two, three, four!
This here is the story about a househusband who, you know,
Just want to get out of the house, has been looking at you,
You, know, the kids, days and days, hes been watching the
Kitchen and screwing around or whatever it has to be till
Hes gone crazy!
Woke up this morning, blues around my head.
No need to ask the reason why.
Went to the kitchen and lit a cigarette,
Blew my worries to the sky.
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out, yeh!
If it dont feel right, you dont have to do it.
Just leave a message on the phone and tell them to screw it.
And after all is said and done,
You cant go pleasin evryone so screw it.
Uh-uh-uh,
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out, baby,
Im stepping out.
Babys sleeping, the cats have all been blessed,
Aint nothing doing on tv. (some old repeat!)
Put on my spacesuit, I got to look my best,
Im going out to do the city.
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out, babe,
Im stepping out.
Boogie!
One more!
Im stepping out, hold it down,
Im stepping out,
Im stepping out,
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta get out!
Im stepping out, babe, just for a while.
Aint been out for days! got to do it tonight!
Give me a break! give me a break! gotta get out!
Gotta get out!
Just for a while, just for the night.
Ill be in before one, or two, or three.
Goodbye.
song performed by by Yoko Ono

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Last Redoubt
Kacelyevo's slope still felt
The cannon's bolt and the rifles' pelt;
For a last redoubt up the hill remained,
By the Russ yet held, by the Turk not gained.
Mehemet Ali stroked his beard;
His lips were clinched and his look was weird;
Round him were ranks of his ragged folk,
Their faces blackened with blood and smoke.
``Clear me the Muscovite out!'' he cried,
Then the name of ``Allah!'' resounded wide,
And the rifles were clutched and the bayonets lowered,
And on to the last redoubt they poured.
One fell, and a second quickly stopped
The gap that he left when he reeled and dropped;
The second,-a third straight filled his place;
The third,-and a fourth kept up the race.
Many a fez in the mud was crushed,
Many a throat that cheered was hushed,
Many a heart that sought the crest
Found Allah's throne and a houri's breast.
Over their corpses the living sprang,
And the ridge with their musket-rattle rang,
Till the faces that lined the last redoubt
Could see their faces and hear their shout.
In the redoubt a fair form towered,
That cheered up the brave and chid the coward;
Brandishing blade with a gallant air,
His head erect and his temples bare.
``Fly! they are on us!'' his men implored;
But he waved them on with his waving sword.
``It cannot be held; 'tis no shame to go!''
But he stood with his face set hard to the foe.
Then clung they about him, and tugged, and knelt.
He drew a pistol out from his belt,
And fired it blank at the first that set
Foot on the edge of the parapet.
Over, that first one toppled; but on
Clambered the rest till their bayonets shone,
As hurriedly fled his men dismayed,
Not a bayonet's length from the length of his blade.
``Yield!'' But aloft his steel he flashed,
And down on their steel it ringing clashed;
Then back he reeled with a bladeless hilt,
His honour full, but his life-blood spilt.
Mehemet Ali came and saw
The riddled breast and the tender jaw.
``Make him a bier of your arms,'' he said,
``And daintily bury this dainty dead!''
They lifted him up from the dabbled ground;
His limbs were shapely, and soft, and round.
No down on his lip, on his cheek no shade:-
``Bismillah!'' they cried, ``'tis an Infidel maid!''
``Dig her a grave where she stood and fell,
'Gainst the jackal's scratch and the vulture's smell.
Did the Muscovite men like their maidens fight,
In their lines we had scarcely supped to-night.''
So a deeper trench 'mong the trenches there
Was dug, for the form as brave as fair;
And none, till the Judgment trump and shout,
Shall drive her out of the Last Redoubt.
poem by Alfred Austin

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