21 AUGUST 1926, Page 15

POETRY

CREgY

AUGUST 20TH, 1340.

THE men who marched to Crecy, they could set a steady pace ;

They swung along and kept it with the enemy in chase ; They cared a deal for plunder and a fig for Heaven's grace, And sweated their road to the Somme.

The men who marched to Crecy, they possessed no L. of C.; They had no regular supplies, no cookers, and no tea ; Their rations were the best of what was left in Picardy-- A foraging march to the Somme.

The route they took to Crecy was two hundred mile or morei And chroniclers may tell you of the weight of mail they wore. They marched asleep ; they marched awake ; the river rolled before, The pitiless waves of the Somme.

The men who marched to Crecy, they were bearded, hard, and lean ; Their ships were left behind them, with the Frenchmen in between, They staggered at the fording, but their strings were dry and clean, And they all passed over the Somme.

Crowborough, August, 1926.

G. D. MAnnxe.Atr.