THE LIVING LINE
(March, 1918)
As long as faith and freedom last,
And earth goes round the sun,
This stands—The British line held fast
And so the fight was won.
The greatest fight that ever yet
Brought all the world to dearth;
A fight of two great nations set
To battle for the earth.
And one was there with blood aflame
To make the earth his tool;
And one was there in freedom's name
That mercy still should rule.
It was a line, a living line
Of Britain's gallant youth
That fought the Prussian one to nine
And saved the world for ruth.
That bleeding line, that falling fence,
That stubborn ebbing wave,
That string of suffering human sense,
A living line of human flesh,
It quivered like a brain;
Swarm after swarm came on afresh
And crashed, but crashed in vain.
Outnumbered by the mightiest foe
That ever sought to put
The world in chains, they met the blow
And fought him foot by foot.
They fought his masses, falling back,
They poured their blood like wine,
And never once the vast attack
Smashed through that living line.
It held, it held, while all the world
Looked on with strangled breath;
It held; again, again it hurl'd
Man's memory to death.
Bleeding and sleepless, dazed and spent,
And bending like a bow,
Backward the lads of Britain went,
Their faces to the blow.
And day went by, and night came in,
And when the moon was gone
Murder burst out with fiercer din,
Day after day, night after night,
Outnumbered nine to one,
In agony that none may write
Those young men held the Hun.
And this is their abiding praise
No future shall undo:
Not once in all those staggering days
The avalanche broke thro'.
Retreat, retreat, yea, still retreat,
But fighting one to nine,
Just knowing there was no defeat
If they but held the line.
Ah, never yet did men more true
Or souls more finely wrought
From Cressy down to Waterloo
Fight as these young men fought;
On whose great hearts the fate of all
Mankind was poised that hour
Which saw the Prussian War God fall
And Christ restored to pow'r.
The world shall tell how they stood fast,
And how the fight was won,
As long as faith and freedom last
And earth goes round the sun.
Harold Begbie
By permission of the Author