52286: Poem 1914-1918

Believe the author to have lived near Beverley, East Yorkshire.

Editor's Comment:
Forty-one stanzas, opening lines as follows: 'In the year nineteen and fourteen, | When the fields were white with corn,...'

As the author mentions being called-up on 18th March 1916, and was wounded on 15th September (year not stated) having gone 'over the top', it seems likely that the action referred to is the battle of Flers-Courcelette, and that the poem was written while convalescing sometime after, in 1916 or 1917. References to 'the lads at the Front today' imply that the war was still being fought during the poem's composition. The author served in a Fusiliers Regiment.