And so when he reached my bedThe General made a stand:“My brave young fellow,” he said,“I would shake your hand.” So I lifted my arm, the right,With never a hand at all;Only a stump, a sightFit to appal. “Well, well. Now that’s too bad!That’s sorrowful luck,” he said;“But there! You give me, my lad,The left […]

He hurried away, young heart of joy, under our Devon sky!And I watched him go, my beautiful boy, and a weary woman was I.For my hair is grey, and his was gold; he’d the best of his life to live;And I’d loved him so, and I’m old, I’m old; and he’s all I had to […]

The same old sprint in the morning, boys, to the same old din and smut; Chained all day to the same old desk, down in the same old rut; Posting the same old greasy books, catching the same old train: Oh, how will I manage to stick it all, if I ever get back again? […]

You make it in your mess-tin by the brazier’s rosy gleam;You watch it cloud, then settle amber clear;You lift it with your bay’nit, and you sniff the fragrant steam;The very breath of it is ripe with cheer.You’re awful cold and dirty, and a-cursin’ of your lot;You scoff the blushin’ ‘alf of it, so rich and […]

We was in a crump-‘ole, ‘im and me;Fightin’ wiv our bayonets was we;Fightin’ ‘ard as ‘ell we was,Fightin’ fierce as fire becauseIt was ‘im or me as must be downed;‘E was twice as big as me;I was ‘arf the weight of ‘e;We was like a terryer and a ‘ound. ‘Struth! But ‘e was sich a […]

POPPIES, you try to tell me, glowing there in the wheat;Poppies! Ah no! You mock me: It’s blood, I tell you, it’s blood.It’s gleaming wet in the grasses; it’s glist’ning warm in the wheat;It dabbles the ferns and the clover; it brims in an angry flood;It leaps to the startled heavens; it smothers the sun; […]

‘Ave you seen Bill’s mug in the Noos to-day?‘E’s gyned the Victoriar Cross, they say;Little Bill wot would grizzle and run away,If you ‘it ‘im a swipe on the jawr.‘E’s slaughtered the Kaiser’s men in tons;‘E’s captured one of their quick-fire guns,And ‘e ‘adn’t no practice in killin’ ‘UnsAfore ‘e went off to the war. […]

Is it not strange? A year ago to-day,With scarce a thought beyond the hum-drum round,I did my decent job and earned my pay;Was averagely happy, I’ll be bound.Ay, in my little groove I was content,Seeing my life run smoothly to the end,With prosy days in stolid labour spent,And jolly nights, a pipe, a glass, a […]

You may talk o’ your lutes and your dulcimers fine,Your harps and your tabors and cymbals and a’,But here in the trenches jist gie me for mineThe wee penny whistle o’ Sandy McGraw.Oh, it’s: “Sandy, ma lad, will you lilt us a tune?”And Sandy is willin’ and trillin’ like mad;Sae silvery sweet that we a’ […]

My stretcher is one scarlet stain,And as I tries to scrape it clean,I tell you wot–I’m sick with painFor all I’ve ‘eard, for all I’ve seen;Around me is the ‘ellish night,And as the war’s red rim I trace,I wonder if in ‘Eaven’s height,Our God don’t turn away ‘Is Face. I don’t care ‘oose the Crime […]

The poppies gleamed like bloody pools through cotton-woolly mist;The Captain kept a-lookin’ at the watch upon his wrist;And there we smoked and squatted, as we watched the shrapnel flame;‘Twas wonnerful, I’m tellin’ you, how fast them bullets came.‘Twas weary work the waiting, though; I tried to sleep a wink,For waitin’ means a-thinkin’, and it doesn’t […]

* The French “Tommy”. Oh, some of us lolled in the chateau,And some of us slinked in the slum;But now we are here with a song and a cheerTo serve at the sign of the drum.They put us in trousers of scarlet,In big sloppy ulsters of blue;In boots that are flat, a box of a […]

Give me the scorn of the stars and a peak defiant; Wail of the pines and a wind with the shout of a giant; Night and a trail unknown and a heart reliant. Give me to live and love in the old, bold fashion;A soldier’s billet at night and a soldier’s ration;A heart that leaps […]

As I was saying . . . (No, thank you; I never take cream with my tea;Cows weren’t allowed in the trenches–got out of the habit, y’see.)As I was saying, our Colonel leaped up like a youngster of ten:“Come on, lads!” he shouts, “and we’ll show ’em.”And he sprang to the head of the men.Then […]

What do they matter, our headlong hates, when we take the toll of our Dead?Think ye our glory and gain will pay for the torrent of blood we have shed?By the cheers of our Victory will the heart of the mother be comforted? If by the Victory all we mean is a broken and brooding […]

I’ve got a little job on ‘and, the time is drawin’ nigh;At seven by the Captain’s watch I’m due to go and do it;I wants to ‘ave it nice and neat, and pleasin’ to the eye,And I ‘opes the God of soldier men will see me safely through it.Because, you see, it’s somethin’ I ‘ave […]

Missis Moriarty called last week, and says she to me, says she:“Sure the heart of me’s broken entirely now–it’s the fortunate woman you are;You’ve still got your Dinnis to cheer up your home, but me Patsy boy where is he?Lyin’ alone, cold as a stone, kilt in the weariful wahr.Oh, I’m seein’ him now as […]

A Belgian Priest-Soldier Speaks:– GURR! You ‘cochon’! Stand and fight!Show your mettle! Snarl and bite!Spawn of an accursed race,Turn and meet me face to face!Here amid the wreck and routLet us grip and have it out!Here where ruins rock and reelLet us settle, steel to steel!Look! Our houses, how they spitSparks from brands your friends […]

Have ever you heard of the Land of Beyond,That dreams at the gates of the day?Alluring it lies at the skirts of the skies,And ever so far away;Alluring it calls: O ye the yoke galls,And ye of the trail overfond,With saddle and pack, by paddle and track,Let’s go to the Land of Beyond! Have ever […]

“Deny your God!” they ringed me with their spears;Blood-crazed were they, and reeking from the strife;Hell-hot their hate, and venom-fanged their sneers,And one man spat on me and nursed a knife.And there was I, sore wounded and alone,I, the last living of my slaughtered band.Oh sinister the sky, and cold as stone!In one red laugh […]