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The 35th Battalion

[section]

  • The hush that comes with twilight's peace, steals o'er the valley's breast,
  • The mystic shades are softer now, on Je Jehari's crest,
  • With twisted trunks like tortured ghosts, the grey niaoulis stand,
  • Amidst the pale lantana tufts, that crouch on either hand.
  • The hush that comes with twilight's peace, steals o'er the valley's breast,
  • When after day's long-suffered hour, the sun 'Scourged land see\s rest,
  • And tremolo cicada song is trilling to the night,
  • E'er playful comes the will o-wisp with wayward dancing light.
  • Then suddenly, like thunder, rolls the bolder beat of drums,
  • Arresting all, and dominant, the great crescendo comes,
  • And as the rain precedes the storm, with measured noble beat,
  • As once they skirled 'mid Scotland's hills, the bagpipes sound retreat.
  • 'Tis mem'ry's hour, and we recall those silent men who lie,
  • Up where the teeming jungles rot, beneath a tortured sky;
  • No words of ours can voice our thoughts; our tongues are stricken dumb,
  • They speak for us, and weep for us, the bagpipe and the drum.

—Alasdair.