Silent homage

In silent homage stand, Salopians true;
A tear in silence shed - they died for you.
They left the gracious shades of Wrekin high,
Or some dear Clee Hill glade, to fight - to die
Perchance, a vale mid Stretton’s purple hills,
Or some dear mining spot; with joy the spirit thrills
That to our Border shire such sons were born
In silent homage stand, this wondrous morn.

So begins a poem by Sarah Barker entitled ‘To the Immortal Memory of the Warriors of the K.S.L.I.’. It comes from a book of her poems published some time in the 1930s and came to light after I saw another of her poems displayed in Coalbrookdale church near to their war memorial. It is crammed full of patriotic verse about the royal family, the empire, famous British victories etc, but the most interesting section to me was one dedicated to Shropshire soldiers who fell in the Great War and community war memorials in the east of the county (where she seems to have lived). There are individual poems about the memorial tablets in Dawley church and Ironbridge Wesleyan chapel, the memorial bells in Ironbridge church, the main memorials at Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge and Wellington memorial lych gate as well as others with titles such as ‘The Poppy’ and ‘The Great Silence Day’. It may not be the greatest poetry ever written and is very much of its time but has an undeniable poignancy which still shines through. These lines are from ‘Dawley Memorial to the Fallen’:

When the setting of sun the Wrekin emblazons -
We’ll think of the “Dauntless” who loved its fair height
Who left its sweet shadow, their homes and their kindred,
For Dawley, for empire, for world’s weal to fight.

The book is simply called ‘Poems’ and is available - for reference only - from Shrewsbury library’s Literature collection.