The Poets & The War XXXIII

By G.M. Chaplin.
The War Illustrated, Volume 3, No. 57, Page 364, October 4, 1940.

(Written in a Fire Station Watchroom during a raid)

When in the after years the tale is told
Of these strange days while Britain stands at bay,
Holding the pass – as, at Thermopylae,
Leonidas – then write the names in gold,
Along with Dunkirk, Narvik, and the rest
Of Bermondsey, Whitechapel, Shoreditch, Bow,
Wapping and Rotherhithe; who stood the test
Of total war, nor flinched beneath the blow.

The people of the little streets stood firm –
And Britain stands. Remember this, Mayfair,
Whitehall and City, when at last the term
Is set to battle; think then of the share
So bravely borne, our freedom to defend,
By front line folk of Borough and East End.

– Daily Telegraph

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Song of a Home Guard

If with parachute and gun The Nazis come and I get one, Richer for his blood will blow Kentish flowers which we know On some sunny slope whereby We encounter, he and I; Or stronger some dog-dais

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For the Towns of the S.E. Coast

Since Britain rose above the seas, The seas have beaten on her shore, An endless battery prolonged For half a million years or more. The waves at shingle, sand and chalk Have clawed with endles

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