62
The Ypres Times.
THE VOICE OF THE GUNS.*
By GILBERT FRANKAU.
We are the guns, and your masters Saw ye our flashes
Heard ye the scream of our shells in the night, and the shuddering crashes
Saw ye our work by the roadside, the shrouded things lying,
Moaning to God that He made themthe maimed and the dying
Husbands or sons,
Fathers or lovers, we break them. We are the guns
We are the guns and ye serve us. Dare ye grow weary,
Steadfast at night-time, at noon-time or waking, when dawn winds blow dreary
Over the fields and the flats and the reeds of the barrier-water,
To wait on the hour of our choosing, the minute decided for slaughter
Swift, the clock runs
Yea, to the ultimate second. Stand to your guns
We are the guns, and we need you here, in the timbered
Pits that are screened by the crest, and the copse where at dusk ye unlimbered
Pits that one found usand, finding, gave life (Did he flinch from the giving
Laboured by moonlight when wraith of the dead brooded yet o'er the living
Ere, with the sun's
Rising, the sorrowful spirit abandoned its guns.
Who but the guns shall avenge him BatteryAction
Load us and lay to the centremost hair of the dial-sight's refraction
Set your quick hands to our levers to compass the sped soul's assoiling
Brace your taut limbs to the shock when the thrust of the barrel recoiling
Deafens and stuns
Vengeance is ours for our servants trust ye the guns
Least of our bond-slaves or greatest, grudge ye the burden
Hard, is this service of ours which has only our service for guerdon
Grow the limbs lax, and unsteady the hands, which aforetime we trusted
Flawed, the clear crystal of sightand the clean steel of hardihood rusted
Dominant ones,
Are we not tried serfs and proventrue to our guns
Ye are the guns Are we worthy Shall not these speak for us,
Out of the woods where the tree-trunks are slashed with the vain bolts that seek for us,
Thunder of batteries firing in unison, swish of shell flighting,
Hissing that rushes to silence and breaks to the thud of alighting
Death that outruns
Horseman and foot Are we justified Answer, 0 guns
Yea by your works are ye justifiedtoil unrelievéd
Manifold labours, co-ordinate each to the sending achievéd
Discipline, not of the feet but the soul, unremitting, unfeignéd
Tortures unholy by flame and by maiming, known, faced, and disdainéd
Courage that shuns
Only foolhardiness even by these, are ye worthy your guns.
Wherefore,and unto ye onlypower hath been given
Yea beyond man, over men, over desolate cities and riven
Yea beyond space, over earth and the seas and the sky's high dominions
Yea beyond time, over Hell and the fiends and the Death-angel's pinions.
Vigilant ones,
Loose them, and shatter, and spare not. We are the guns
♦Reprinted frpm The City of Fear (Chatto Windus), by kind permission of the Author.
