We Remember – We Honour

The 30th Battalion leaving to participate in the Great War. Image A-03128 courtesy of Royal BC Museum and Archives

Aftermath

With Desolation and the Starts
I lonely vigil keep,
Over the garner'd fields of Mars,
Watching the dead men sleep –
Huddled together, so silent there.
With bloodless faces and clotted hair,
Wrapped in their long, long sleep!

By uptorn trees and crater rims
Along the Ridge they lie,
Sprawled in the mud, with out-spread limbs,
Wide staring at the sky.
Why to the sky do they always stare,
Questioning heaven in dumb despair?
Why don't they moan, or sigh?

Why do I rave, 'neath the callous stars,
At their upturned faces white?
I, surely I, with my crimson scars
Slumber with them this night!
Death, with shadowy finger bare,
Beckons me on to – I know not where;
But, huddled together, and freed from care
We'll watch till the dawn of Light.

From the Somme,
1916

Private Frank Walter
Canadian Serviceman

SS Princess Victoria: troops leaving Victoria for the Great War Image D-04766 courtesy of Royal BC Museum and Archives