Heroes Poetry
Location: Cumbria
This is a poem by Archie Hepburn, a soldier in WW1 and was written in the trenches in 1917.
MATEY
Not comin’ back Tonight Matey
and Reliefs are comin’through
We’re all going out alright Matey
Only we’re leavin’you
Gawd, it’s a bloody sin Matey
Now that we’ve finished the fight
We go when Reliefs come in matey
But you’re staying ‘ere tonight
Over the top is cold Matey
You lie on the field alone
Didn’t I love you of old Matey
Dearer than blood of my own
You were my dearest chum Matey
(Gawd, but your face is white)
But now the Reliefs have come Matey
I’m going alone tonight
I’d sooner the bullet was mine Matey
Goin’ out on my own
Leavin’you ‘ere in the Line Matey
All by yourself, alone,
Chum, o’mine and your dead Matey
And this is the way we part
The bullet went through your head Matey
But, Gawd, it went through my ‘eart
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