Poem ~ Singer on the Frontline - Tuesday, 5 January 1915

Source: File: Theodore Botrel.jpg, 2015. Du Temps des Cerises Aux Feuilles Mortes. 5 January 1915. [online] (updated 1 January 2015) Available at:<http://www.dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes.net/index.html >[Accessed: 5 January 2015].

By 1915 known as the Bard of the Armies,

Theodore Botrel was a patriot of causes

Of France, against Germany - having tried

To join the army in France and Belgium,

His age was against him - so with his talents

He composed and performed patriotic songs.

Described as ballad singer and Homeric

Minstral, Botrel was touring the front lines,

Singing patriotic numbers to all soldiers,

In hospitals, trench and bivouac camps –

With war office authority to enter all bases.

Botrel set to perform in a Dunkirk hospital

During 30 December - the singer was ready,

Being on the verge of starting an initial note -

When with great crashing sounds, bombs

Dropped by enemy planes fell at second

Intervals, close by outside, in the courtyard.

The windows of wards instantly shattered -

With a grazing piece of glass brushed Botrel’s

Forehead. Quite how they reacted was not said,

But from the conversation the singer stood

Calmly, making hardly a flinch at the breeze.

A wounded patient cried out ‘What is it?’

The ballad singer calmly smiled and replied,

‘They are striking for the curtain to rise.’

Unlike English theatres  - curtains of Paris

Theatres are thumped up - Botrel added,

That on the third strike he would make a start.

As promised the third crash of a bomb

Dropped - now more at a distance  - Botrel

Began without signs of tremor in his voice;

An incident of a stiff upper French lip, stood
Theodore Botrel 'Chansonnier des Armées.'

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Brave Ballad Singer. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 5 Jan. p.4. Col.6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11322317/Daily-Telegraph-January-5-1915.html [Accessed: 5 January  2015].

Source: File: Théodore Botrel Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [online] Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9odore_Botrel> Accessed: 5 January 2015].

Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 5 January 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11322317/Daily-Telegraph-January-5-1915.html

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