The Ypres Times,
THE WARDENS OF THE GATE.
The following poem, which is now published as a whole, for the first time, was
sent to Field-Marshal Earl French of Ypres, a year ago. /Is a result of
the appeal then made by its author, the League was founded and dedicated
to "the men who fought at Yper" (the Flemish form of Ypres).
I.
If, at evening, by the roadside,
In the heart of war-scarred Flanders,
There should kneel one English mother
Praying for her son who perished,
Think ye of the tens of thousands
In the Homeland, and beyond seas
Who could feel and share her sorrow,
New-lit by this revelation
Of the greatness of the valour
Of the men who died at Yper
III.
But those vanished, valiant legions,
They are gone, the land enfolds them
We are here, come through the valley,
Brethren of the blasted enclave
Ye, that dread ordeal surviving,
Hear the call, horse, foot and gunners
Of the Spirit of the Salient
Where ye dwell, soever distant,
Have we not this thing in common
Shall our fellowship be sundered
II.
O, those lost and silent legions
In the heart of storied Flanders
Could they spring from out the meadows
And return to us who loved them,
What a host would march to-morrow
By the westward road from Menin
Staunch and stalwart, straight and smiling,
As they came and as they left us
O, the youths who died at Yper
Kept the foeman from the city
IV.
Nay, by yonder heap of ruins,
By the beacon on the landscape,
By yon symbol of their suffering
That their sight, when living, greeted,
As they passed on through the Grand Place
That their dying eyes saluted
Let us league ourselves together,
We who served the world at Yper,
Tasted of the curse and glory,
Let us dedicate our union
V.
To the men who fought at Yper
In the heart of ancient Flanders,
Faced the guns and stoutly manned them,
Swam the slough and dug the trenches.
To the men who served and suffered,
To the youth who died for England.
Kept the foeman from this city J
In the heart of storied Flanders,
Veterans of the Bloody Salient,
Wardens of the Gate to Calais
Beckles Willson.
