William Hamilton (soldier)
Encyclopedia
William Robert Hamilton was a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 soldier. He was born in Dumfries
Dumfries
Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...

, Scotland. He emigrated to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 where a portion of his education was at the South African College
South African College
The South African College was an educational institution in Cape Town, South Africa, which developed into the University of Cape Town and the South African College Schools .-History:...

, Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

. He was killed on the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...

 in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 in 1917 and is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial, at the Tyne Cot British Cemetery and Memorial, at Ieper (Ypres
Ypres
Ypres is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the villages of Boezinge, Brielen, Dikkebus, Elverdinge, Hollebeke, Sint-Jan, Vlamertinge, Voormezele, Zillebeke, and Zuidschote...

)in Flanders, Belgium.

The reference to him reads: (Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

Publications

  • William Hamilton. Modern Poems. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 1917. 011648.eee.17 British Library
  • William Hamilton. Moths and Fairies: A Play. 1912.


Poem by William Hamilton:

The Song of an Exile

I have seen the Cliffs of Dover

And the White Horse on the Hill;

I have walked the lanes, a rover;

I have dreamed beside the rill:

I have known the fields awaking

To the gentle touch of Spring;

The joy of morning breaking,

And the peace your twilights bring.

But I long for a sight of the pines, and the blue shadows under;

For the sweet-smelling gums, and the throbbing of African air;

For the sun and the sand, and the sound of the surf's ceaseless thunder,

The height, and the breadth and the depth, and the nakedness there.



I have visited your cities

Where the unregenerate dwell;

I have trilled the ploughman's ditties

To the mill-wheel and the well.

I have heard the poised lark singing

To the blue of summer skies;

The whirr of pheasants winging,

And the crash when grouse arise.

But I sigh for the heat of the veld, and the cool-flowing river;

For the crack of the trek-whip, the shimmer of dust-laden noon:

For the day sudden dying; the croak of the frogs, and the shiver

Of tropical night, and the stars, and the low-hanging moon.



I have listen'd in the gloaming

To your poets' tales of old;

I know, when I am roaming,

That I walk on hallowed mould.

I have lived and fought among you

And I trow your hearts are steel;

That the nations who deride you

Shall, like dogs, be brought to heel.

But I pine for the roar of the lion on the edge of the clearing;

For the rustle of grass snake; the birds' flashing wing on the heath;

For the sun-shrivelled peaks of the mountains to blue heaven rearing;

The limitless outlook, the space, and the freedom beneath.



Source Original text: William Hamilton, Modern Poems (Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 1917): 50-51. 011648.eee.17 British Library
First publication date: 1917
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