Recruiting
By E.A. Mackintosh (1893-1917).
'Lads,
you're wanted, go and help,' |
||
| On the railway carriage wall | ||
| Stuck the poster, and I thought | ||
| Of the hands that penned the call. | ||
| Fat civilians wishing they | ||
| 'Could go and fight the Hun'. | ||
| Can't you see them thanking God | ||
| That they're over forty-one? | ||
| Girls with feathers, vulgar songs - | ||
| Washy verse on England's need - | ||
| God - and don't we damned well know | ||
| How the message ought to read. | ||
| 'Lads, you're wanted! over there, | ||
| Shiver in the morning dew, | ||
| More poor devils like yourselves | ||
| Waiting to be killed by you. | ||
| Go and help to swell the names | ||
| In the casualty lists. | ||
| Help to make the column's stuff | ||
| For the blasted journalists. | ||
| Help to keep them nice and safe | ||
| From the wicked German foe. | ||
| Don't let him come over here! | ||
| Lads, you're wanted - out you go.' | ||
| There's a better word than that, | ||
| Lads, and can't you hear it come | ||
| From a million men that call | ||
| You to share their martyrdom? | ||
| Leave the harlots still to sing | ||
| Comic songs about the Hun, | ||
| Leave the fat old men to say | ||
| Now we've got them on the run. | ||
| Better twenty honest years | ||
| Than their dull three score and ten. | ||
| Lads, you're wanted. Come and learn | ||
| To live and die with honest men. | ||
| You shall learn what men can do | ||
| If you will but pay the price, | ||
| Learn the gaity and strength | ||
| In the gallant sacrifice. | ||
| Take your risk of life and death | ||
| Underneath the open sky. | ||
| Live clean or go out quick - | ||
| Lads, you're wanted. Come and die. | ||
| E. A. Mackintosh (1893-1917) served as an officer in the Seaforth Highlanders from December 1914, and won the Military Cross at Arras in 1916. Having been wounded on the Somme, he was killed at Camrai in November, 1917. |
