Skip to navigation | Skip to content | Skip to footer


Key dates over December 1915

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Lives lost on this day: 2

31st December 1915 - New Year's Eve - 2nd,3rd,4th and 9th Battalions all preparing for year ahead

Rolling Casualty Count@ 2633

2nd Batt: Reconnoitre of trenches to be taken over tomorrow. Drill and practising for bombing raid along trenches.

SMD RFA: Wire cutting with help of 3rd Batt Worcs Reg.

4th and 9th Batt: Both in the trenches which were in a poor state.

A New Year's Eve in War Time

BY THOMAS HARDY

1915-1916

I

Phantasmal fears,

And the flap of the flame,

And the throb of the clock,

And a loosened slate,

And the blind night's drone,

Which tiredly the spectral pines intone!

II

And the blood in my ears

Strumming always the same,

And the gable-cock

With its fitful grate,

And myself, alone.

III

The twelfth hour nears

Hand-hid, as in shame;

I undo the lock,

And listen, and wait

For the Young Unknown.

IV

In the dark there careers —

As if Death astride came

To numb all with his knock —

A horse at mad rate

Over rut and stone.

V

No figure appears,

No call of my name,

No sound but 'Tic-toc'

Without check. Past the gate

It clatters — is gone.

VI

What rider it bears

There is none to proclaim;

And the Old Year has struck,

And, scarce animate,

The New makes moan.

VII

Maybe that 'More Tears! —

More Famine and Flame —

More Severance and Shock!'

Is the order from Fate

That the Rider speeds on

To pale Europe; and tiredly the pines intone.

Information researched by the WWW100 team.