PREFACE

I must apologize for the size of this booklet, which can only be justified on the grounds that there is some demand for the contents as recitations. I hope presently to combine whatever is worth preserving in my three volumes of verse, so as to make a single collection.

Arthur Conan Doyle.

HAIG IS MOVING

August 1918

YPRES

September, 1915

GROUSING

“The army swore terribly in Flanders.”

Uncle Toby.

THE VOLUNTEER

(1914–1919)

THE NIGHT PATROL

September 1918

RAGTIME!

[“During the catastrophe the band of the Titanic played negro melodies and ragtime until the last moment, when they broke into a hymn.”—Daily Paper.]

CHRISTMAS IN WARTIME

1916

1917 THE LAST LAP

1918

FATE

Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury, England.

BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

SONGS OF ACTION

SEVENTH IMPRESSION.

Punch.—“Dr. Conan Doyle has well named his verse ‘Songs of Action.’ It pulsates with life and movement, whether the scenes be laid on sea or land, on ship or horseback.”

The Daily Telegraph.—“There is spirit and animation, the rush and glow of young blood about his poems—always a pulsating sense of life.”

The Yorkshire Post.—“Dr. Conan Doyle writes a good song and a good ballad. He has the requisite amount of pathos, and his humour is spontaneous.”

SONGS OF THE ROAD

The Morning Post.—“A troop of rollicking tales, of fervid exhortations and straightforward arguments … sound sentiments, hearty humour…. The creator of Sherlock Holmes is able to construct vivid and pungent verse.”

The Spectator.—“He can tell a good story as well in verse as in prose: and the fetters of rhyme in no way weaken the merits of the swift tale … humour as well as spirit.”

The Observer.—“The strong vitality of the author pervades his poetry. It is a tonic to meet his frank optimism.”

JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street, London, W.1

RECENT POETRY

JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street, London, W.1