<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">No Man's Land</h1><p class="byline"> CAPT. JAMES H. KNIGHT-ADKIN In<span class="smallcaps"> The Spectator</span></p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">No Man's Land is an eerie sight</p><p class="line">At early dawn in the pale gray light.</p><p class="line">Never a house and never a hedge </p><p class="line">In No Man's Land from edge to edge,</p><p class="line">And never a living soul walks there </p><p class="line">To taste the fresh of the morning air. </p><p class="line">Only some lumps of rotting clay,</p><p class="line">That were friends or foemen yesterday</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">What are the bounds of No Man's Land? </p><p class="line">You can see them clearly on either hand,</p><p class="line">A mound of rag-bags gray in the sun, </p><p class="line">Or a furrow of brown where the earthworks run </p><p class="line">From the Eastern hills to the Western sea,</p><p class="line">Through field or forest, o'er river and lea </p><p class="line">No man may pass them, but aim you well</p><p class="line">And death rides across on the bullet or shell.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But No Man's Land is a goblin sight </p><p class="line">When patrols crawl over at dead o' night; </p><p class="line">Boche or British, Belgian or French, </p><p class="line">You dice with death when you cross the trench. </p><p class="line">When the "rapid," like fireflies in the dark, </p><p class="line">Flits down the parapet spark by spark, </p><p class="line">And you drop for cover to keep your head </p><p class="line">With your face on the breast of the four months' dead.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The man who ranges in No Man's Land </p><p class="line">Is dogged by the shadows on either hand </p><p class="line">When the starshell's flare, as it bursts o'erhead, </p><p class="line">Scares the great gray rats that feed on the dead, </p><p class="line">And the bursting bomb or the bayonet--snatch </p><p class="line">May answer the click of your safety--catch. </p><p class="line">For the lone patrol, with his life in his hand, </p><p class="line">Is hunting for blood in No Man's Land.</p></div></body></html> · Great War