SONGS OF HEROIC DAYS

By

THOMAS O'HAGAN

Author of

A Gate of Flowers
In Dreamland
Songs of the Settlement
In the Heart of the Meadow
and Others

Toronto:
WILLIAM BRIGGS
1916

Copyright, Canada, 1916
by Thomas O'Hagan

TO THE BRAVE CANADIAN HEARTS
THAT BEAT AND BATTLE FOR THE
CAUSE OF FREEDOM AND THE SAFETY
OF THE EMPIRE.

PREFACE

Nearly all these Poems have appeared during the past year in the columns of the Globe and the Mail and Empire of Toronto, and the Free Press of Detroit, Michigan.

When the Author read from his poems last winter before the Women's Press Club of Toronto one of its members suggested that an engrossed and illuminated copy of the poem, "I Take Off My Hat to Albert," be presented to His Majesty, King Albert of Belgium. This was done through the kind offices and courtesy of Mr. Goor, the Belgian Consul-General at Ottawa.

His Majesty's gracious letter of acceptance, which the reader will find on another page, is indeed a Royal Foreword to these poetic blossoms of a piteous though heroic time.

THOMAS O'HAGAN
January 20th, 1916.

Contents

Letter From the King of Belgium
Translation
I Take Off My Hat to Albert
The Kaiser's Favorite Poems
Louvain
The Kaiser's Bhoys
Mothers
In the Trenches
The Christ-Child
God's New Year's Gift
Trouble in the Louvre
"Bobs" of Kandahar
Song of the Zeppelin
"Sock it to 'Em"