"THE DAY."

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 716, 28 October 1914, Page 7

"THE DAY."

By Henry Chappell. The author of this magnificent poem 53 Mr Henry Chappell, a railway porter at Bath. Mr CbapDell is known to his comrades as the "Bath Railway Poet." A poem such as this lift 3 him to,the rank of a national poet. The lines are remarkably appropriate to the unenviable - title —William the Bloodstained—with which Lord Curzon h2s branded the Kaiser for ell time. You boasted the Day, and you toasted the Day, And now the Day has come. Blasphemer, braggart, and coward all, Little you reek on the numbirg ball, The blasting shell, or the "white aim's" fall, As the# speed poor humans home. You spied for the Day. you lied for the Day, And woke the Day's red spleen. Monster, who asked God's aid Divine, Then strewed His seas wiih the ghastly mine; Not all the waters of the Rhine Can wash thy foul hands clean. You dreamed for the Day, and schemed for the Day; - Watch how the Day will go. Slayer of age and youth and prime (Defenceless slain for never a crime), Thou art eteeped in blood aa a hog in slime, False friend and :owardly foe. You have sown for the Day, you have grown for the Day; Yours is the harvest red. Can you hear the groans and the awful cries? Can you see the heap of slain that lies And sightless turned to ths flame-spit skies The glassy eyas of the dsad? You have wronged for the Day, you have longed for the Day That lit the awful flame. 'Tis nothing to you that hill and plain Yield sheaves of dead men amid the grain; . That widows mourn for. their loved ones slain, And mothers curse thy name. But after the Day there's a price to pay For the sleepers under the sod. And He you have mocked for many a dayListen and hear what He has to say: "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." What can you say to God? .