<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Guards Came Through</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Men</span> of the Twenty-first</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Up by the Chalk Pit Wood,</p><p class="line">Weak with our wounds and our thirst,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Wanting our sleep and our food,</p><p class="line">After a day and a night --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">God, shall we ever forget!</p><p class="line">Beaten and broke in the fight,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But sticking it -- sticking it yet.</p><p class="line">Trying to hold the line,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Fainting and spent and done,</p><p class="line">Always the thud and the whine,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Always the yell of the Hun!</p><p class="line">Northumberland, Lancaster, York,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Durham and Somerset,</p><p class="line">Fighting alone, worn to the bone,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But sticking it -- sticking it yet.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Never a message of hope!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Never a word of cheer!</p><p class="line">Fronting Hill 70's shell-swept slope,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With the dull dead plain in our rear.</p><p class="line">Always the whine of the shell,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Always the roar of its burst,</p><p class="line">Always the tortures of hell,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">As waiting and wincing we cursed</p><p class="line">Our luck and the guns and the <em>Boche</em>,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">When our Corporal shouted, "Stand to!"</p><p class="line">And I heard some one cry, "Clear the front for the Guards!"</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And the Guards came through.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Our throats they were parched and hot,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But Lord, if you'd heard the cheers!</p><p class="line">Irish and Welsh and Scot,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Coldstream and Grenadiers.</p><p class="line">Two brigades, if you please,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Dressing as straight as a hem,</p><p class="line">We -- we were down on our knees,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Praying for us and for them!</p><p class="line">Lord, I could speak for a week,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But how could you understand!</p><p class="line">How should <em>your</em> cheeks be wet,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Such feelin's don't come to <em>you</em>.</p><p class="line">But when can me or my mates forget,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">When the Guards came through?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"Five yards left extend!"</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">It passed from rank to rank.</p><p class="line">Line after line with never a bend,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And a touch of the London swank.</p><p class="line">A trifle of swank and dash,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Cool as a home parade,</p><p class="line">Twinkle and glitter and flash,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Flinching never a shade,</p><p class="line">With the shrapnel right in their face</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Doing their Hyde Park stunt,</p><p class="line">Keeping their swing at an easy pace,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Arms at the trail, eyes front!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Man, it was great to see!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Man, it was fine to do!</p><p class="line">It's a cot and a hospital ward for me,</p><p class="line">But I'll tell 'em in Blighty, wherever I be,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">How the Guards came through.</p></div><p class="byline">Arthur Conan Doyle</p></body></html> · Great War