The Guards Came Through Poem : The Guards Came Through and Other Poems by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Guards Came Through Poem
by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
First book appearance in: A Treasury Of War Poetry: British And American Poems Of The World War 1914-1917, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston and New York, 1917
The Guards Came Through Poem
Men of the Twenty-first
Up by the Chalk Pit Wood,
Weak with our wounds and our thirst,
Wanting our sleep and our food,
After a day and a night—
God, shall we ever forget!
Beaten and broke in the fight,
But sticking it—sticking it yet.
Trying to hold the line,
Fainting and spent and done,
Always the thud and the whine,
Always the yell of the Hun!
Northumerland, Lancaster, York,
Durham and Somerset,
Fighting alone, worn to the bone,
But sticking it—sticking it yet.
Never a message of hope!
Never a word of cheer!
Fronting Hill 70’s shell-swept slope,
With the dull dead plain in our rear.
Always the whine of the shell,
Always the roar of its burst,
Always the tortures of hell,
As waiting and wincing we cursed
Our luck and the guns and the Boche,
When our Corporal shouted, “Stand to!”
And I heard some one cry,
“Clear the front for the Guards!”
And the Guards came through.
Our throats they were parched and hot,
But Lord, if you’d heard the cheers!
Irish and Welsh and Scot,
Coldstream and Grenadiers.
Two brigades, if you please,
Dressing as straight as a hem,
We—we were down on our knees,
Praying for us and for them!
Lord, I could speak for a week,
But how could you understand!
How should your cheeks be wet,
Such feelin’s don’t come to you.
But when can me or my mates forget,
When the Guards came through?
“Five yards left extend!”
It passed from rank to rank.
Line after line with never a bend,
And a touch of the London swank.
A trifle of swank and dash,
Cool as a home parade,
Twinkle and glitter and flash,
Flinching never a shade,
With the shrapnel right in their face
Doing their Hyde Park stunt,
Keeping their swing at an easy pace,
Arms at the trail, eyes front!
Man, it was great to see!
Man, it was fine to do!
It’s a cot and a hospital ward for me,
But I’ll tell’em in Blighty, wherever I be,
How the Guards came through.
The Guards Came Through and Other Poems
Victrix Poem
Those Others Poem
The Guards Came Through Poem
Haig Is Moving Poem
The Guns In Sussex Poem
Ypres Poem
Grousing Poem
The Volunteer Poem
The Night Patrol Poem
The Bugles Of Canada Poem
The Wreck On Loch Mcgarry Poem
The Bigot Poem
The Athabasca Trail Poem
Ragtime! Poem
Christmas In Trouble Poem
To Carlo Poem
To Ronald Ross Poem
Little Billy Poem
Take Heart Poem
Retrospect Poem
Comrades Poem
Lindisfaire Poem
Holy Grail A Parable Poem
Fate Poem
