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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 | 5 |
God, shall we ever forget! | |
Beaten and broke in the fight, | |
But sticking itsticking it yet. | |
Trying to hold the line, | |
Fainting and spent and done, | 10 |
Always the thud and the whine, | |
Always the yell of the Hun! | |
Northumberland, Lancaster, York, | |
Durham and Somerset, | |
Fighting alone, worn to the bone, | 15 |
But sticking itsticking it yet. | |
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Never a message of hope! | |
Never a word of cheer! | |
Fronting Hill 70s shell-swept slope, | |
With the dull dead plain in our rear. | 20 |
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, | 25 |
When our Corporal shouted, Stand to! | |
And I heard some one cry, Clear the front for the Guards! | |
And the Guards came through. | |
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Our throats they were parched and hot, | |
But Lord, if youd heard the cheers! | 30 |
Irish and Welsh and Scot, | |
Coldstream and Grenadiers. | |
Two brigades, if you please, | |
Dressing as straight as a hem, | |
Wewe were down on our knees, | 35 |
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 feelins dont come to you. | 40 |
But when can me or my mates forget, | |
When the Guards came through? | |
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Five yards left extend! | |
It passed from rank to rank. | |
Line after line with never a bend, | 45 |
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, | 50 |
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! | |
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Man, it was great to see! | 55 |
Man, it was fine to do! | |
Its a cot and a hospital ward for me, | |
But Ill tell em in Blighty, wherever I be, | |
How the Guards came through. | |
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