The challenge of the dead; a vision of the war and the life of the common soldier in France, seen two years afterwards between August and November, 1920

Graham Stephen 1884-

Sujets

• World War

Informations

• Publié par: les_archives_du_savoir
• Nombre de lectures: 14
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 10 Mo

Extrait

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Ihcecutors of Mrs, Hume BlnkeiTHE CHALLENGE OF THE DEADBOOKS BY STEPHEN GRAHAM
Vagabond in the Caucasus.A
Russia.Undiscovered
A Tramp's Sketches.
Russia.Changing
Russian Pilgrims to Jerusalem.With the
With Poor Emigrants to America.
World.Russia and the
Mary.The Way of Martha and the Way of
Through Russian Central Asia.
Priest of the Ideal.
Russia in 1916.
The Quest of the Face.
Private in the Guards.!A
of the Slaves.Children
The Challenge of the Dead.The Challenge of
the Dead
and the lifeA vision of the war
of the common soldier in France,
seen two years afterwards between
August and November, 1920
By
Stephen Graham
488763
3. AO3o.
Gassell and Company, Ltd
New York, Toronto andLondon, Melbourne
1921Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/challengeofdeadvOOgrahuoftIt The Challenge of the Dead
suns shines and a strong wind lifts theTHE
toward the land ; the blue sea, in happywaves
commotion, throws armfuls of white spray
breakwater which is calledacross the long stone
way goes twoZeebruges Mole. The white stone
marine healthi-out to sea, and is swept by amiles
gunsit at intervals stand the Germanness. Upon
their barrels burst out like thistle-with the ends of
have theirheads. They point o'er the sea; they
which onarmoured shelter on the inner side of
the gunner's eye stand inscribed inthe level with
distances to all placesneat German schrift the
— greenish-yellowof importance within gunshot
camouflaged German guns with something of the
expression. On the lee side of thetiger in their
of hydroplanes—as itMole cling the giant sheds
great stone wall.were, hooked to the side of the
oneIn the quieter water on this side of the Mole
sees jutting out of the fairway the tops of vessels
sunk there in and near by is a tablet marking1918,
landing-party of the Vindictivethe spot where the
made its daring raid upon the foe.
I—
Challenge of the DeadThe
school-children inZeebruges ! A party of
*' croc " are being escorted along the way by
of Surbiton have scrawled theirnuns ; the Smiths
onnames on the guns. There is a half-way house
Mole now where one drinks beer and buys athe
andpicture postcard, or at the base of the Mole
looking outward toward England, one may dine
Grand Palace Hotel. But what ofalfresco at a
that ! The whole is sun-drowned and wind-swept
and bare and open with a spaciousness and grandeur
The breeze whichwhich are ample for the soul.
blows from England slackens nothing ere it reaches
those fields where the wild flowers and the rushes
bloom.
The mind goes back to 1914 and that great
October when Antwerp fell but Ypres was held
when the last transports rolled alongside this
glorious Mole bearing the Seventh Division, soon
to be called, in faith, immortal, because half its
number was destroyed before the war was very
old.
October fifth they sailed away
Upon the salt sea's raging spray
And landed safe in Bruges bay
Upon their way to Ypres.
They stepped up from the boats, new, ruddy,
well equipped, intact—they rolled forward, with
drums beating, Belgian land. Now allo'er the
thewho ever will arrive in Zeebruges from o'er
sea will arrive after the Seventh Division. The