LEST WE FORGET 401 Vimy “The Legacy of Willie Milne” Canadian Expeditionary Force, Vimy Ridge, Thelus, France Easter Monday, April 9, 1917 by Scott Allan White As the winds grow weak and the sun grows long, As the clouds grow heavy and the stars shine strong; A rolling stretch of Douai Plain is what I might look on, O’er the ridge today. The boys they lie upon the ground, they laugh and sing and pray; They’re thankful for the heroes like Willie Milne today; Who filled with life and dreams and hope, gasped his final say, Up on the hill this day. Vimy Ridge above this lair, has taken lives so young; The fighting lads from Canada going dusk to dawn; Yard by yard they must charge up, until the fight is won; On each and every day. Round on round the rifles fire, up at the men we see; Sans love, sans hope, sans will, sans amore, sans d’espoir, sans esprit; With bodies of their countrymen lying in between; Upon this very day. Climb up the hill at any cost, take ‘er foot by foot, Through blood and guts and body parts; through mud and stench and soot, Until the enemy gives in, or ‘til the ridge took; It should be ours today. Inch by inch, man on man, cringing through their sites; The fight goes on at any cost, the ridge is ours tonight, Or tomorrow morn’ the scurge goes on, ‘til no man’s left to fight; On and on each day. Leaping, pounding thwarting, charging, “will” be on our side, Redeeming usurpations, avenging those who’ve died. The soldiers grit, “Oh Canada!”; We won’t retreat or hide, On this or any day. Go, go, go unto your death, despair; with bullets fly’n overhead, with cordite in the air; Until the Germans one by one, give way. “We must reach there!” Tripping o’er the ridge this hour; The Germans cannot stay. Victory isn’t sweet, or light hearted, nor captured in a song; It’s clamour brought to silence, winds drawn weak and sun grown long. Across the Douai Plain we stare; Our enemy’s withdrawn, From Vimy Ridge today. See page 209 for a brief biography of the subject of this poem, William Johnstone Milne.
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