| In the cornfields speckled poppies glow in a twilight, moving shadows,
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| From the High Wood the reaper walks, a harvest to be gathered,
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| The skylark’s solo fateful cry, the hares alert now scattered,
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| The pheasant raised by beating drumsin a field prepared for battle
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| The orders raised at crack of dawn, the regiment madeready then stood the day
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| beneath a sun, impatient for their calling,
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| And now’s the time and now’s the hourand now’s the chance for glory
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| The clarion call, the bugles sentthe lancers from Crucifix Corner
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| The melody of pounding hooves, their harnesses a jangling, and up the line the
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| squadrons movea dark parade assembling
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| Light horse crossing heavy ground, trembling trepidation, the steaming flanks
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| the nervous hearts require no moremotivation, fleeting prayers by Crucifix
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| Corner.
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| Where spent men rise and the wounded cheer at the sightof their salvation,
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| The hopes and prayers for the breakthroughpromised this conflict will soon be
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| over
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| Leaping hedges, rusting broken wire, through a maze of desperate trenches,
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| all around the world explodesas the barrage gains momentum
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| Shells gouge dark the golden fields, fresh graves formed in craters;
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| the shrapnel’s jagged deadly thornstear troopers from their chargers
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| Through this wall of smoke and flamethis lethal iron curtain, to gain the slope,
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| the woods beyond, where hunting will be certain
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| I’ve seen you through these bloody daysand I’ll see you through another,
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| I promise you we will meet againin the shade of crucifix corner.
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| Like game that’s flushed from standing cornexposed now in the open,
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| driven on a tide of fear, outrun, the ranks are broken
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| Some are stuck with piercing lance others slashed by sabre, a primal fear
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| engulfs this ancient terror, chill surrender
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| And now’s the time and now’s the hourand now’s the chance for glory
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| We’ll carry the field and the ridge beyondand break these lines before us
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| We’ll charge into the open groundto the valleys barely yonder
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| They’ll remember when we took the daywhen we passed through Crucifix Corner
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| And then the darkness stole the day
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| Our hopes were dashed the charge was broken
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| Those who survived returned to Crucifix Corner
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| In the cornfields ripening corpsessweet in a sunrise moving shadows,
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| From the High Wood the reaper walkedto a harvest duly gathered,
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| The skylark’s solo mournful cryabove spirits torn and tattered,
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| In a new dawn the whistle blowson a field preparedfor battle |