Intimate images sent back
From the Caucasus area,
Depicted the ‘Little Father’
Of the Russian people.
The Tsar and his army -
Emperor and peasant -
To meet on common ground.
On the Border of Europe
And Asia – The Caucasus
Campaign had unfolded,
Since early November -
The Bergmann Offensive,
Being launched against
The Ottoman Empire.
With Armenians rushing
To join the Russian ranks -
Willingly giving their blood,
To fight for freedoms
From Nicholas, The Tsar.
Comes a call for the Russian
Flag to fly over Bosporus,
And the Dardanelles.
On a visit to the Campaign,
The Russian Emperor
Sets out to see wounded
Soldiers at Tiflis –
The capital of Georgia.
About the hospitals the Tsar
Entered wards with words
‘I greet you, brave fellows.’
The wounded are said to reply,
‘Hail sire,’ in unity of chorus.
Their Emperor was seen to wait,
Speaking to occupants of each bed.
He heard as a gunner, a reservist
From Kustsais - His story was that
He fell, in an attempt to rescue
A gun-horse – to be caught under
The wheels to break four ribs.
Conversing with a Turkish man -
An Armenian, who unable to speak
Russian - spoke to him via a surgeon
As interpreter - Along with fellow
Soldiers at the start of the war,
They disguised selves as peasants,
And escaped to Kars – hiding
To avoid capture – once at Kars,
They enlisted with the Russian army.
At a Tiflis hospital, one brave Kharkoff
Recruit of the Kuban Cossacks,
Spoke with the Tsar - this young
Cossack told how he rescued
A comrade, injured with a broken leg.
Under heavy snow and darkness
The Cossack carried the man,
Over 200 paces on his shoulders,
Finally reaching his horse –
He was decorated by the Tsar,
With Military Order of St George - the
Highest decoration of Russian Order.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1914.
Tsar at The Front – Talks with the Wounded – Stories of Heroism. The Daily
Telegraph, [online] 18 Dec. p.6. Col.5. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11299354/Daily-Telegraph-December-18-1914.html
[Accessed: 18 December 2014].
Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter]
(Personal communication, 18 December 2014).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary
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