Prose & Poetry - The Muse in Arms - Cricket: The Catch
Updated - Saturday, 7 June, 2003

First published in London in November 1917 and reprinted in February 1918 The Muse in Arms comprised, in the words of editor E. B. Osborne:

"A collection of war poems, for the most part written in the field of action, by seamen, soldiers, and flying men who are serving, or have served, in the Great War".

Below is one of eight poems featured within the Chivalry of Sport section of the collection.  You can access other poems within the section via the sidebar to the right.

Cricket: The Catch
by F. W. Harvey

Whizzing, fierce, it came
Down the summer air,
Burning like a flame
On my fingers bare,
And it brought to me
As swift - a memory.

Happy days long dead
Clear I saw once more.
Childhood that is fled:-
Rossall on the shore,
Where the sea sobs wild
Like a homesick child.

Oh, the blue bird's fled!
Never man can follow.
Yet at times instead
Comes this scarlet swallow,
Bearing on its wings
(Where it skims and dips,
Gleaming through the slips)
Sweet Time - strangled things.

A "Buck Private" was an Americanism to describe a Private without any stripes.

Original Material © Michael Duffy 2000-07, SafeSurf Rated