SEVERN & SOMME
SEVERN & SOMME
BY
IVOR GURNEY
Private, of the Gloucesters
LONDON: SIDGWICK & JACKSON, LTD.
3 ADAM STREET, ADELPHI, W.C.2. 1917
{4}
First published in 1917
All rights reserved{5}
TO
MARGARET HUNT
PREFACE
This book stands dedicated to one only of my friends, but there are manyothers to whom I would willingly dedicate singly and in state, if thatdid not mean the writing of forty books of verse and dedications—aterrible thing for all concerned.
So that, under the single name and sign of homage and affection, I woulddesire such readers as come to me to add also:
To my father and mother; F. W. Harvey (also a Gloucestershire lad); MissMarion Scott, whose criticism has been so useful, and she so kind, inspite of my continued refusal to alter a word of anything; the Vicar ofTwigworth; Herbert Howells (and this is not the last time you will hearof him); Mr. Hilaire Belloc, whose “Path to Rome” has been my trenchcompanion, with “The Spirit of Man”; Mr. Wilfred Gibson, author of“Friends,” a great little book; many others also, including Shakespeareand Bach, both friends of mine; and, last but not least, my comrades oftwo platoons of the-/-[A] Gloucesters, who so often have wonderedwhether I were crazy or not. Let them draw their own conclusions now,for the writing of this book it was that so distracted me.... This is along list, and even now does not include old Mrs. Poyner, who was sojolly and long-suffering,{8} nor my boat Dorothy, now idle in the mud;though a poet sang of her full of glory at Framilode.
[A] The publication of Battalion Nos. being strictly forbiddenby the Military Authorities, we have to leave the identification of theplatoons referred to by Mr. Gurney to those whom it concerns.—S. & J.,Ltd.
Even as I write the list becomes fuller, farther extended, yet a soldiermust face pain, and so it remains shorter by far than might be.
I fear that those who buy the book (or even borrow), to get informationabout the Gloucesters will be disappointed. Most of the book isconcerned with a person named Myself, and the rest with my county,Gloucester, that whether I die or live stays always with me—being initself so beautiful, so full of memories; whose people are so good to befriends with, so easy-going and so frank.
Some of the afore-mentioned people I have never had good fortune enoughto meet in the flesh, but that was not my fault. I hope they willforgive my using their names without permission. Ah, would they onlyretaliate in kind! That is, however, not likely, as I never was famous,and a Common Private makes but little show.
All these verses were written in France, and in sound of