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Prose & Poetry - War Poetry of S J Robinson - On Yonder Hill

Anzac Cove Reproduced within this area of the site are present-day First World War poems written by S. J. Robinson.  Click here for an introduction to the poems.

On Yonder Hill

On yonder hill, the poppies sway
In chilled, yet friendly wind today
Their petals drift like young men's lives
Taken far from root, to fall 'neath skies

Their petals grew, fell, fade away
As if they have a line to say
To teach us all that glory brief
To often ends in soldier's grief

On yonder field, furrows score the ground
That once so clamoured, emits no sound
Each bay a story long could tell,
Of laughter sapped in youth's own hell

Of dreams unrealised, futures strewn,
Of pipe and Drums last defiant tune,
Of Ordered slaughter, new hopes lost.
To lie there, yonder, under wooden cross

Bulgaria mobilised a quarter of its male population during WW1, 650,000 troops in total.

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