XLVIII THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Robert W. Service, the "Red Cross Man," (who lost his brother, 

 Lieutenant Albert Service, killed in action in 1916) has sought his 

 subject with a sure instinct: 



"OVER THE PARAPET" 



"All day long when the shells sail over, 



I stand at the sandbags and take my chance; 

 But at night, at night, I'm a reckless rover, 



And over the parapet gleams Romance. 

 Romance! Romance! How I've dreamed it, writing 



Dreary old records of money and mart, 

 Me with my head chock full of fighting. 



And the blood of vikings to thrill my heart! 



But little I thought that my time was coming, 



Sudden and splendid, supreme and soon; 

 And here I am with the bullets humming, 



As I crawl and I curse the light of the moon; 

 Out alone, for adventure thirsting! 



Out in mysterious No Man's Land! 

 Prone with the dead when a star shell bursting, 



Flares on the horrors on every hand. 



Theodore Goodridge Roberts gives us such stanzas as this: • 



"A CANADIAN DAY, SEPTEA^IBER 15, 1916." 



"Steady they come, as those who had come in the morning. 

 Unshaken they passed where the bursting barrage was set; 



They passed their victorious comrades; they passed to their gqal — 

 The machine-gunned houses and gardens of Courcellette. 



Into and through it, they flamed like fire through stubble; 



With death before them, behind them, and swift in the air; 

 They struck stark fear to the hearts of the craven foemen; 



With bomb and steel they dug the Boche from his lair. 



September the Fifteenth. That was a day of glory. 

 With blood, with life, they captured the fortress town; 



While far way, in the dear land they died for. 



In frosty coverts the red leaves fluttered down." ^ 



Others of the older writers, who have not been at the front, have 

 also been stirred by phases of the struggle. Duncan Campbell Scott 

 has seen the vision of the aviator's soul in his Miltonic "Lines on a 

 Canadian Aviator who died for his Country in France." 



