Our Boys

(The youth of our town, the flower of our manhood, have gone forth fired with enthusiasm and patriotism to fight for their hearths and homes.  Our hearts go out in the fullest possible sympathy to the relatives of those brave men, and I do hope that Time, the great healer, will assuage the grief of those left behind.)

O Boys who died for the country,

O dear and sainted dead !

What can we say about you

That has not once been said?

Whether you fell in the contest,

Struck down by shot and shell,

Or pined ‘neath the hand of sickness

Or starved in the prison cell.

We know that you died for Freedom,

To save our land from shame,

To rescue a periled nation,

And we give you deathless fame;

‘Twas the cause of Truth and Justice

That you fought and perished for,

And we say it, oh, so gently

“Our boys who died in the war.”

After the battles are over,

And the war drums cease to beat,

And no more is heard on the hillside

The sound of hurrying feet;

Full many a noble action,

That was done in the days  of strife,

By the soldier is half forgotten,

In peaceful walks of life.

Anon  

(Publ. 17th. October 1914)