Title:  Carry On

Author:  Coningsby Dawson

Release Date:  November 18, 2004 [EBook #14086]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of this project gutenberg EBOOK carry on ***

Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.

Carry On

By Lieutenant
Coningsby
Dawson

CARRY ON

[Illustration:  Lieutenant Coningsby Dawson Canadian Field Artillery]

CARRY ON

LETTERS IN WAR TIME

BY

CONINGSBY DAWSON

NOVELIST AND SOLDIER

WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY HIS FATHER, W.J.  DAWSON

FRONTISPIECE

1917

     When the war’s at an end

     At length when the war’s at an end
       And we’re just ourselves,—­you and I,
     And we gather our lives up to mend,
       We, who’ve learned how to live and to die: 

     Shall we think of the old ambition
       For riches, or how to grow wise,
     When, like Lazarus freshly arisen,
       We’ve the presence of Death in our eyes?

     Shall we dream of our old life’s passion,—­
       To toil for our heart’s desire,
     Whose souls War has taken to fashion
       With molten death and with fire?

I think we shall crave the laughter
Of the wind through trees gold with the sun,
When our strife is all finished,—­after
The carnage of War is done.

Just these things will then seem worth while:—­
How to make Life more wondrously sweet;
How to live with a song and a smile,
How to lay our lives at Love’s feet.

EricP. Dawson,
Sub.  Lieut.  R.N.V.R.

INTRODUCTION

The letters in this volume were not written for publication.  They are intimate and personal in a high degree.  They would not now be published by those to whom they are addressed, had they not come to feel that the spirit and temper of the writer might do something to strengthen and invigorate those who, like himself, are called on to make great sacrifices for high causes and solemn duties.