The hour was near for starting
Ere Vimy ridge was won,
And we said "Good luck" at parting
As we had often done
In folly, sport or fun.
(For love and pride and passion
With speech accord but ill,
And if we had skill to fashion
Brave words to speak our fill,
We should be speaking still).
All dreams men strive and sigh for,
Or lose beyond recall,
The things men live and die for,
The great things and the small —
Our "Good luck" meant them all.
"To each his dear ambition
As unto each seems best,
Love's crown or fate's fruition,
The fame, the medaled breast . . .
And to the dead their rest!"
Notes
From SMALL CRAFT: Sailor Ballads and Chantys, edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by George H. Doran Co., New York, US, © 1919, p. 52.
The capture of "Vimy ridge" in World War 1 cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides.
Charley Noble
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Although most emphatically British Miss Smith had only returned from an extended working trip to Canada when the 1914-18 broke out and so would have had a great deal of sympathy for the Canadian troops who were the main force against the German positions.
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