The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-03-04
POETRY EXTRAORDINARY
Graphic Account Of seasickness and
Other Troubles.

some OF their troubles and to cure
the blues.
The following is not printed as an
imitation of Tennyson but as a crap
hic description of some things not
usually attempted even by a soldier
poet
Noble Three Hundred and Seventh
Twas in the days of the Great World
Wa,
My friend, on faraway foreign
strand
When the good old ship "Grampian"
cur unit nobly did land.
There were men from South Carolina
Also some from Tennessee,
Some had come from Califoria, still
q few had followed me.
Well, we landed there in England on
raw November day,
And each one thought of home folks
A few thousand miles away.
We marched straight out through
Liverpool and Walton on the hill,
And walking on those cobbled roads
Was enough a horse to kill
On dinkey little railroad stood
A dinkey little train
With not enough square feet Of roof
To keep out one foot of rain.
We punched up in those coaches till
our heads did fairly ring
And a Tommy Corporal handed us a
letter from the King
AT last the darn train started rumbl-
ing down the track
Each Yankee lad that tried to sleep
All next day rubbed his back.
At ten o'clock at Derby, our Red
Cross, good and great
Had prepared us buns and coffee
And each one ate and ate.
We left the train at Romney
Twas just at three A. NJ.
Our packs we slung upon our backs
And hiked right down the stem,
Through many crooked village
! street.
Up winding hilly trail
We marched and the rain beat on us
like binding hens egg hail.
At last we hit the rest camp,
Camp Woodley" so they said.
And If ever man stayed a fortnight
there, tbs a sure bet he is dead
They crowded us into those round.
honse tents, to each one. twenty
men.
But | tell the truth of the matter.
There was barely room for ten.
we stayed here just a couple OF days
Ikg and again took TO the train
! And after a short half hours ride
we were again relieved Of The
strain
Il For then in the foggy distance. and Il
was some foggy, too,
CITY ii you can call it such. South
J. ampton hove in view.
We waited around on those dock.
that day for many a weary hou
Aud when at last our boat pulled on
Our stomachs sure were sour.
rhey heaved up on the benches, tire,
heaved up on the floor.
They stroye to reach the ocean
But never reached the door.
IL was Just AT the dawn Of daylight
Aiar through . foggy screen,
\ vision Of France rose before n
with its fields of lovely green.
In this fair land. the Bloody Huns
hands
Have destroyed the work of God
TIL Yankee lads in o. ID. clad ha
chased them from the sod.
We discmbarkcd AT Cherbourg an
hreathed Of the rain laden air.
And after two days in rest cam
there, we started for ST. Nazair,
We travelled this time in box car,
with rumble and grumble an
roa'
Ana each lad sleeping cursed the TIu
for causing this terrible war
~ st. Nazairo with more dampness
Was where we slept on stats a
night;
we worked all day at Reception Par
and at mess were ready to figh
Ihey gave us slum for breakfast ;
neon II was slum again
They dished II all out at the kitche
nut we ate IL in the rain.
AT last we moved 10 Reception Par
Where the mud was clear up to o,
chin
And once we slipped from Off o,
porch, our chances were vel
thin
n, Tho rain came down by the bucket
full
Id win dark clouds rolling past.
And, to our great sorrow. they TO
us we'd be here to the last.
II, We tolled here from the dawn of d,
to the middle of each dark nigl
And the lads coming into the ba
racks
from work presented terrible sigl
We prayed each day for the end
wag,
For the ship, to take us home
For in this land OF Sunny Mud.
" one of us cares to roam.
We've seen the oceans roughnei
we've seen old England's fog
And wading around in this glorio
mud
Makes us feel like jolly fog.