<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Marching on Tanga</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Marching</span> on Tanga, marching the parched plain</p><p class="line">Of wavering spear-grass by Pangani river,</p><p class="line">England came to me -- me who had always ta'en</p><p class="line">But never given before -- England, the giver,</p><p class="line">In a vision of tall poplar trees that shiver</p><p class="line">On still evenings of summer, after rain,</p><p class="line">By Slapton Ley, where reed-beds start and quiver</p><p class="line">When scarce a ripple moves the upland grain.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Then I thanked God that now I had suffered pain</p><p class="line">And, as the parched plain, thirst, and lain awake</p><p class="line">Shivering all night through till cold daybreak:</p><p class="line">In that I count these sufferings my gain</p><p class="line">And her acknowledgment. Nay, more, would fain</p><p class="line">Suffer as many more for her sweet sake.</p></div><p class="byline">-- Francis Brett Young.<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/> With the British Expeditionary Force, Marago-Opuni, German East Africa. June, 1916.</p></body></html> · Great War