The Song of Tiadatha

The verse-narrative follows a young, carefree dandy who volunteers for service, endures training, and serves in France and the Salonica theatre; it records his social life in the city, the building of a dug-out on the Doiran front, combat, hospital convalescence, a destructive fire, and a return home to reunion with a sweetheart. Written in a playful, Hiawatha-like metre, the piece blends humour, descriptive realism and sentiment to portray comradeship, the mundane preparations of war, frontline routines and small personal triumphs. Episodes alternate comic observation with sober scenes of hardship, producing an episodic, songlike portrait of soldiering and leave.