The Drums in Our Street : A Book Of War Poems
▻https://archive.org/stream/drumsinourstree00davigoog/drumsinourstree00davigoog_djvu.txt
Après les guerres il n’y a qu’amertune et vengeance.
By Mary Carolyn Davies
The Macmillan Company, 1918
Gift of Class of 1900
THE BLOOD-STAINED CROSS
(From a rosary found on the body of a poilu killed at the battle of Festubert.)
A BLACK cross and a bloody
With a small Christ on a tree
A black cross and a bloody
From a dead man’s rosary.
To count no Ave Marys
To say no prayers by rote
A black cross and a bloody
I wear upon my throat;
A black cross and a bloody
I wear upon a chain
To keep in this my body
Still, still, his body’s pain;
A black cross and a bloody
To let me not again
Sleep satisfied or calm until
A murderer be slain.
The young dead man had stiffened.
His fingers held from harm
In wooden clasp the cross that now
Upon my throat is warm.
About him fell my kinsmen;
The foe they could not stem;
And since I have no token
I keep this cross for them.
Blackcrusted blood makes holy
The black cross at my throat.
And to the Christ upon it
I say no prayers by rote:
Kind prayers I have forgotten,
The little prayers of peace —
Until a death be compassed
I have not time for these.
Until his death be compassed
Who slew my kin, I keep
The little cross upon me
To tell me, in my sleep.
Even in dreams, to strengthen
My arm to join my blow
With others to bring death to him
Who laid my kinsmen low.
I wear the black cross that has been
In a dead man’s hand. I dedicate
My life, my power, my strength, my hate
To this : For what his deeds have been
To slay the one who slew my kin.
BEAUTY AND JOY ARE KIN TO ME
AND YOUTH. WAR SLEW THEM UTTERLY.
Battle of Festubert
▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Festubert
Casualties
The British lost 16,648 casualties from 15/16–25 May. The 2nd Division lost 5,445 casualties, the 7th Division lost 4,123 casualties, the 47th Division had 2,355 losses, the Canadian Division lost 2,204 casualties and the 7th (Meerut) Division had 2,521 casualties. The German defenders had c. 5,000 casualties, including 800 men taken prisoner. French casualties during the Second Battle of Artois were 102,533 men and German casualties were 73,072 men.
