LAND A-ND WATER. February lo, 1916. 
A SONG OF THE GUNS. 
By Gilbert Frankau. 
8.-THE VOICE OF THE GUNS. 
We are the guns, and your masters ! Saw ye our flashes ? 
Heard ye the scream of our shells in the night, and the shuddering crashes ? 
Saw ye our work by the roadside, the shrouded things thick -lying, 
Moaning to God that He made them— the maimed and the dying ? 
Husbands or sons, 
Fathers or lovers, we break them. We are the guns ! 
Wo are the guns, and ye serve us ! Dare ye grow weary, 
Steadfast at night-time, at noon-time ; or waking, when dawn winds blow dicury 
Over the fields and the flats and the reeds of the barrier-water, 
To wait on the hour of our choosing, the minute decided for slaughter ? 
S\vift the clock runs ; 
Yea, to the ultimate second. Stand to your guns I 
We are the guns and we need you ! h^e,<mthe timbered 
Pits that are screened by the crest, and We copse where at dusk ye unlimbered ; 
Pits that one found us— and, finding, gave life (Did he flinch from the giving ?) ; 
Laboured by moonlight when wraith of the dead brooded yet o'er the living, 
Ere, with the Sun's - 
Rising, the sorrowful spirit abandoned its guns. 
Who but the guns shall avenge him?, Strip us for action; • 
Load us and lay to the centremost hair j>f the dial-sight's refraction ; 
Set your quick hands to our levers to compass the sped soul's assoiling ; 
Brace your taut limbs to the shock when the thrust of the barrel recoiling 
Deafens and stuns ! 
Vengeance is ours for our servants : trust ye the guns 1 
Least of our bond-slaves or greatest, grudge ye the burden ? 
Hard, is this service of ours which has only our service for guerdon : 
Grow the limbs lax, and unsteady the hands, which aforetime we trusted ; 
Flawed, the clear crystal of sight ; and the clean steel of hardihood rusted ? 
Dominant ones, ' •■.' 
Are we not tried serfs and proven — true, to lour guns? ■ 
Ye are the guns / Are we worthy ? Shall not these speak for ns, 
Out of the woods where the tree-trunks are slashed with the vain bolts that seek for us,. 
Thunder of batteries firing in unison, swish of shell flighting, ' 
Hissing that rushes to silence and breaks Jo the th<ud.pf alighting ,■ 
Death that outruns- \: " ' 
~-.--».,4,. ■ ' , 
Horseman and foot? Are we justified?,. Answer,' 0- guns ! 
Yea ! by your works are ye justified — toil unreUeved ; 
Manifold labours, co-ordinate each to liie sending achieved ; 
Discipline, not of the feet but the soul, unremitting, unfeigned; 
Tortures unholy, by flame and by maiming, known, faced, and disdaihed ; 
-Courage that shuns 
Only foolhardiness ; even by these, are ye worthy your guns. 
Wherefore — and unto ye only — power hath been given ; 
Yea ! beyond man, over men, over desolate cities and riven ; 
Yea ! beyond space, over earth and the seas and the. skies high dominions ; 
Yea ! beyond time, over Hell and the fiends and the Death-angel's pinions. 
Vigilant ones, 
Loose them, and shatter, and spare not ! We are the guns ! 
Finis. 
N.B.— Mr. Gilbert Frankau's poem *' A Song of the Guns" which has been appearing in 
LAND AND WATER during the past few weeks, wilt be published 'Snimediately in 
book form at one shilling net by Messrs. Chatto and Winilus under the title of " The Guns." 
