A Song of the Air

Item

A Song of the Air

GORDON ALCHIN
From "Oxford and Flanders." B.H, Blackwell, Publishers, Oxford,England. Special permission to reproduce in this book.

THIS is the song of the Plane--

The creaking, shrieking plane,

The throbbing, sobbing plane,

And the moaning, groaning wires:--

The engine--missing again!

One cylinder never fires!

Hey ho! for the Plane!

This is the song of the Man--

The driving, striving man,

The chosen, frozen man:

The pilot, the man-at-the-wheel,

Whose limit is all that he can,

And beyond, if the need is real!

Hey ho! for the Man!

This is the song of the Gun--

The muttering, stuttering gun,

The maddening, gladdening gun:--

That chuckles with evil glee

At the last, long drive of the Hun,

With its end in eternity!

Hey ho! for the Gun!

This is the song of the Air

The lifting, drifting air,

The eddying, steadying air,

The wine of its limitless space:--

May it nerve us at last to dare

Even on death with undaunted face!

Hey ho! for the Air!

Title
A Song of the Air
Identifier
greatwar_Eaton158
Item sets
Great Poems of the World War
Media
<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">A Song of the Air</h1><p class="byline"> GORDON ALCHIN <br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/>From "Oxford and Flanders." B.H, Blackwell, Publishers, Oxford,England. Special permission to reproduce in this book.</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">THIS is the song of the Plane--</p><p class="line">The creaking, shrieking plane, </p><p class="line">The throbbing, sobbing plane, </p><p class="line">And the moaning, groaning wires:--</p><p class="line">The engine--missing again! </p><p class="line">One cylinder never fires!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:3%">Hey ho! for the Plane!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">This is the song of the Man--</p><p class="line">The driving, striving man, </p><p class="line">The chosen, frozen man:</p><p class="line">The pilot, the man-at-the-wheel, </p><p class="line">Whose limit is all that he can, </p><p class="line">And beyond, if the need is real!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:3%">Hey ho! for the Man!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">This is the song of the Gun--</p><p class="line">The muttering, stuttering gun, </p><p class="line">The maddening, gladdening gun:-- </p><p class="line">That chuckles with evil glee </p><p class="line">At the last, long drive of the Hun, </p><p class="line">With its end in eternity!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:3%">Hey ho! for the Gun!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">This is the song of the Air</p><p class="line">The lifting, drifting air, </p><p class="line">The eddying, steadying air, </p><p class="line">The wine of its limitless space:--</p><p class="line">May it nerve us at last to dare </p><p class="line">Even on death with undaunted face! </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:3%">Hey ho! for the Air! </p></div></body></html>