Above the roar of traffic, the hurricane of life
The countless daily worries, the endless petty strife
Above the sound of pleasure, the toil for good or ill
There sounded forth a message “Be ye silent now and still”.
And the people heard the message, though they scarce had need to hear
As they bowed their heads in memory of the ones they held so dear
And a thousand prayers ascended and a thousand sorrows met
As the people bowed in memory of the ones who paid the debt.
There sounded forth a message, did it compass all the earth?
Did it travel o’er the ocean o’er the lands of desert earth?
Yea it reached earth’s far horizons and it went beyond the trail
And it ended in a whisper as it passed beyond the veil.
And it reached those mystic regions far beyond our mortal sight
Where our dearest hopes are hidden, where our deepest wrongs made right,
And they heard it oh they heard it those for whom we weep as yet
And they answered “Ah we knew it, knew that they would not forget”.
This poem was probably a reflection of the loss of her eldest brother, Arthur George Boyce, Private 7609, who served with the Canadian infantry (Eastern Ma Ontario Regiment) and was killed at Ypres on 6th Nov 1917. He was one of many whose grave is not known. He is remembered at the Menin Gate at Lleper, West Vlaanderen, Belgium (Panel 10-26-28).
Marjorie was to lose two more brothers – Leicester John Boyce and Francis Reginald Boyce – in World War II.
Jottings on my Family History 