<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">My Old Grenade</h1><h1 align="" class="head"><em>Tune</em>--"My Old Shako"</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I MIND the day, my old grenade,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">When first we met at war,</p><p class="line">'Twas in a little billet place</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Six months ago and more;</p><p class="line">I dreamt that I should be cashiered,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">As I went to the Orderly Room--</p><p class="line">'Twas then I met our Adjutant,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And he spoke my final doom.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Heigh-ho, you have got to know</p><p class="line">All about the bombs and how to detonate and throw,</p><p class="line">And then I hope you'll bring us back, when to the line we go,</p><p class="line">Ten, twenty, thirty, forty Bosches in a row.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I recollect, my old grenade,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The time I tried that same,</p><p class="line">'Twas in a most unpleasant wood,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The Hammerhead<a class="footnote" href="#mackintosh107" name="mackintosh107-link" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">1</a> by name,</p><p class="line">When we waited for three hours or more</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Under the Bosches' fire--</p><p class="line">But I only got a beastly cold</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And some scratches from the wire.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Heigh-ho, how was I to know</p><p class="line">They'd wired the bottom of the ditch by which we had to go</p><p class="line">And that was how I somehow failed to get the D.S.O.,</p><p class="line">With ten, twenty, thirty, forty Bosches in a row.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I'm waiting now, my old grenade,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Until the spring sets in,</p><p class="line">And the blinking old Division</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">More pushing will begin.</p><p class="line">And when you come to bury me</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With a handy pick and spade,</p><p class="line">Just write, " Here lies a grenadier</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That loathed his old grenade."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Heigh-ho, and I hope that I shall go</p><p class="line">To a place where I shall never get an order or memo.,</p><p class="line">And here's to every gallant lad that gets a D.S.O.</p><p class="line">By bringing twenty, thirty, forty Bosches in a row.</p></div></body></html> · Great War