Showing posts with label Rudyard Kipling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rudyard Kipling. Show all posts

Sunday 5 October 2014

Boots - boots- boots - boots....

Trudging in those Boots!!!



Here is a poem by Rudyard Kipling, it is about marching but if you take out the references to war it is totally applicable to tramping as well. Anyone who has ever gone tramping/walking long distance will recognise the cadence: trudge, trudge, trudge, trudge....
 



Boots
 
(Infantry Columns)

WE’RE foot—slog—slog—slog—sloggin’ over Africa!

Foot—foot—foot—foot—sloggin’ over Africa—
(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin’ up and down again!)
            There’s no discharge in the war!
 
Seven—six—eleven—five—nine-an’-twenty mile to-day— 
Four—eleven—seventeen—thirty-two the day before—
(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin’ up and down again!)
            There’s no discharge in the war!
 
Don’t—don’t—don’t—don’t—look at what’s in front of you.
(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin’ up an’ down again!) 
Men—men—men—men—men go mad with watchin’ ’em,
            And there’s no discharge in the war!
 
Try—try—try—try—to think o’ something different—
Oh—my—God—keep—me from goin’ lunatic!
(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin’ up an’ down again!) 
            There’s no discharge in the war!
 
Count—count—count—count—the bullets in the bandoliers.
If—your—eyes—drop—they will get atop o’ you
(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin’ up and down again!)
            There’s no discharge in the war! 
 
We—can—stick—out—’unger, thirst, an’ weariness,
But—not—not—not—not the chronic sight of ’em—
Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin’ up an’ down again!
            An’ there’s no discharge in the war!
 
’Tain’t—so—bad—by—day because o’ company, 
But—night—brings—long—strings—o’ forty thousand million
Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin’ up an’ down again.
            There’s no discharge in the war!
 
I—’ave—marched—six—weeks in ’Ell an’ certify
It—is—not—fire—devils—dark or anything, 
But boots—boots—boots—boots—movin’ up an’ down again,
            An’ there’s no discharge in the war!