F. W. Harvey

“ Bishop Frodsham, preaching in Gloucester Cathedral, after visiting the Troops in France, quoted the following poem in a passage which admirably expresses the feelings of most of our fighting men.
“To suppose that these men enjoy the fighting would be sheer nonsense. The soldier does not want to go on killing and maiming Germans or Turks. He wants to get the dreadful war finished, so that he can get back to England again. But he wants the matter fought to a finish because he has seen in the villages and towns of France what German domination means. ”

“ We are proud of the courage and the gaiety these little papers show. We laugh at their quips and jokes: then suddenly we find that the corners of our mouths are quivering [ix] and the tears are gathering in our eyes. We see that the boys are thinking about England below their gaiety. One young poet lifts the veil in this exquisite little rondeau—
“‘If we return, will England be
Just England still to you and me—
The place where we must earn our bread? ”

“ Against the dark glass shone like a flower the mouth of his beloved. But in vain he pressed lips of fire upon the panes—in vain!
“Then, since Love may not melt,” cried he, “shatter, O Death!”
God broke the window with His fist.
[56]
5. IN THE FIELD OF TIME
In the field of Time, at the end of the path of daisies, grow flaming poppies, taking the eye more readily than the flowers of gold and white.
But a man, looking at some he had plucked to wear, discovered (formed by the inside shape and hue of the petals) a black cross at the bottom of every scarlet cup, and cast them from him. ”

“ Perhaps (I do not know) you have learnt to hate yourself or to love a fellow-being.
[61]
10. FAITH
Why am I so many men?
It is because you have not Faith.
What is Faith?
Faith is a fire.
But how does a man come by it?
Perhaps God gives it him.
[62]
11. TIME—THE HORSE
Whither does Time trot us? And is moonlight brightening the harness buckles as when children play beneath the rugs, guessing “Where are we?” and father drives home—home—beneath the stars? ”

“ Lance-Corporal Harvey pursued, felling one of the retreating Germans with a bludgeon. He seized him, but finding his revolver empty and the enemy having opened fire, he was called back by Corporal Knight, and the prisoner escaped. Three Germans were killed and their rifles and a Mauser pistol were brought in. The patrol had no loss.”
[viii] The poems are written by a soldier and reflect a soldier’s outlook. Mud, blood and khaki are rather conspicuously absent. They are, in fact, the last things a soldier wishes to think or talk about.
What he does think of is his home. ”

“ WHO LIE DEAD IN FOREIGN FIELDS
FOR LOVE OF ENGLAND,
OR WHO LIVE TO PROSECUTE THE WAR
FOR ANOTHER ENGLAND
[vii] PREFACE
Most of these poems were written at the Front, and appeared in the Fifth Gloucester Gazette—the first paper ever published from the trenches. ”