Topic: BatzB - Graspan
Montague (Macgregor) Grover
I Killed a Man at Graspan
Montague (Macgregor) Grover was born 31 May 1870 in West Melbourne, Victoria. He was the son of Harry Ehret Grover.
As a journalist, first with David Syme and then the Argus in 1896. For ten years remained one of the paper's chief police reporters and political roundsmen. Grover was an experienced writer and wrote many poems and had them published thoughout Victoria.
The following poem, I Killed a Man at Graspan was published in the "The Coo-ee Reciter" in 1904 was very much in the anti-war genre that grew over the twentieth century. The poem is quite haunting and as such is popular throughout the bush poetry circles.
I killed a man at Graspan
I killed him fair in a fight;
And the Empire's poets and the Empire's priests
Swear blind I acted right.
The Empire's poets and the Empire's priests
Make out my deed was fine,
But they can't stop the eyes of the man I killed
From starin' into mine.
I killed a man at Graspan
Maybe I killed a score;
But this one wasn't a chance-shot home,
From a thousand yards or more.
I fired at him when he'd got no show;
We were only a pace apart,
With the cordite scorchin' his old worn coat
As the bullet drilled his heart
I killed a man at Graspan,
I killed him fightin' fair;
We came on each other face to face,
An' we went at it then and there.
Mine was the trigger that shifted first,
He was the life that sped.
An' a man I'd never a quarrel with
Was spread on the boulders dead.
I killed a man at Graspan;
I watched him squirmin' still
He raised his eyes, an' they met with mine;
An' there they're star'n still.
Cut of my brother Tom, he looked,
Hardly more'n a kid;
An' Christ! he was stiffenin' at my feet
Because of the thing I did.
I killed a man at Graspan;
I told the camp that night;
An' of all the lies that I ever told
That was the poorest skite.
I swore I was proud of my hand-to-hand,
An' the Boer I'd chanced to pot,
An' all the time I'd ha' given my eyes
To never ha' fired that shot.
I killed a man at Graspan;
An hour ago about,
For there he lies with his starin' eyes
An' his blood still tricklin' out.
I know it was either him or me,
I know that I killed him fair,
But, all the same, wherever I look,
The man that I killed is there.
I killed a man at Graspan;
My first an, God! my last;
Harder to dodge than my bullet is
The look that his dead eyes cast.
If the Empire asks for me later on
It'll ask for me in vain,
Before I reach to my bandolier
To fire on a man again.
Apart from his poetry, one ongoing memorial remains for the work of Grover, the Montague Grover Award for cadet journalists aimed at promoting excellence in journalism. Grover died 7 March 1943 at "Casa del Rio", 95 Alexander Avenue, South Yarra, Victoria, Australia.
Further Reading:
Australian Dictionary of Biography - Grover, Montague MacGregor (Monty) (1870 - 1943)
Graspan, South Africa, November 25, 1899
Battles where Australians fought, 1899-1920
Citation: Montague (Macgregor) Grover - I Killed a Man at Graspan
