Lost in the swamp and welter of the pit,He flounders off the duck-boards; only he knowsEach flash, and spouting crash,–each instant litWhen gloom reveals the streaming rain. He goesHeavily, blindly on. And, while he blunders,“Could anything be worse than this!”–he wonders,Remembering how he saw those Germans run,Screaming for mercy among the stumps of trees:Green-faced, they […]

I From you, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart,The substance of my dreams took fire.You built cathedrals in my heart,And lit my pinnacled desire.You were the ardour and the brightProcession of my thoughts toward prayer.You were the wrath of storm, the lightOn distant citadels aflare. II Great names, I cannot find you nowIn these loud years of youth […]

Now light the candles; one; two; there’s a moth;What silly beggars they are to blunder inAnd scorch their wings with glory, liquid flame–No, no, not that,–it’s bad to think of war,When thoughts you’ve gagged all day come back to scare you;And it’s been proved that soldiers don’t go madUnless they lose control of ugly thoughtsThat […]

When life was a cobweb of stars for Beauty who cameIn the whisper of leaves or a bird’s lone cry in the glen,On dawn-lit hills and horizons girdled with flameI sought for the triumph that troubles the faces of men. With death in the terrible flickering gloom of the fightI was cruel and fierce with […]

No doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and strainHave caused their stammering, disconnected talk.Of course they’re “longing to go out again,”–These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk,They’ll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowedSubjection to the ghosts of friends who died,–Their dreams that drip with murder; and they’ll be proudOf glorious war […]

Ring your sweet bells; but let them be farewellsTo the green-vista’d gladness of the pastThat changed us into soldiers; swing your bellsTo a joyful chime; but let it be the last. What means this metal in windy belfries hungWhen guns are all our need? Dissolve these bellsWhose tones are tuned for peace: with martial tongueLet […]

Tossed on the glittering air they soar and skim,Whose voices make the emptiness of lightA windy palace. Quavering from the brimOf dawn, and bold with song at edge of night,They clutch their leafy pinnacles and singScornful of man, and from his toils aloofWhose heart’s a haunted woodland whispering;Whose thoughts return on tempest-baffled wing;Who hears the […]

In fifty years, when peace outshinesRemembrance of the battle lines,Adventurous lads will sigh and castProud looks upon the plundered past.On summer morn or winter’s night,Their hearts will kindle for the fight,Reading a snatch of soldier-song,Savage and jaunty, fierce and strong;And through the angry marching rhymesOf blind regret and haggard mirth,They’ll envy us the dazzling timesWhen […]

Hullo! here’s my platoon, the lot I had last year.“The war’ll be over soon.”“What ‘opes?”“No bloody fear!”Then, “Number Seven, ‘shun! All present and correct.”They’re standing in the sun, impassive and erect.Young Gibson with his grin; and Morgan, tired and white;Jordan, who’s out to win a D.C.M. some night;And Hughes that’s keen on wiring; and Davies […]

(Hindenburg Line, April 1917.) Groping along the tunnel, step by step,He winked his prying torch with patching glareFrom side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air. Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes too vague to know,A mirror smashed, the mattress from a bed;And he, exploring fifty feet belowThe rosy gloom of battle overhead. Tripping, he grabbed the […]

“Pass it along, the wiring party’s going out”–And yawning sentries mumble, “Wirers going out,”Unravelling; twisting; hammering stakes with muffled thud,They toil with stealthy haste and anger in their blood. The Boche sends up a flare. Black forms stand rigid there,Stock-still like posts; then darkness, and the clumsy ghostsStride hither and thither, whispering, tripped by clutching […]

At dawn the ridge emerges massed and dunIn the wild purple of the glowering sun,Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroudThe menacing scarred slope; and, one by one,Tanks creep and topple forward to the wire.The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowedWith bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear,Men jostle and climb to meet […]

Soldiers are citizens of death’s grey land,Drawing no dividend from time’s to-morrows.In the great hour of destiny they stand,Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows.Soldiers are sworn to action; they must winSome flaming, fatal climax with their lives.Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns beginThey think of firelit homes, clean beds, and wives. I see […]

Dark clouds are smouldering into redWhile down the craters morning burns.The dying soldier shifts his headTo watch the glory that returns:He lifts his fingers toward the skiesWhere holy brightness breaks in flame;Radiance reflected in his eyes,And on his lips a whispered name. You’d think, to hear some people talk,That lads go West with sobs and […]

The effect of our bombardment was terrific. One mantold me he had never seen so many dead before.”– War Correspondent. “He’d never seen so many dead before.”They sprawled in yellow daylight while he sworeAnd gasped and lugged his everlasting loadOf bombs along what once had been a road.“How peaceful are the dead.”Who put that silly […]

Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloomShudders to drizzling daybreak that revealsDisconsolate men who stamp their sodden bootsAnd turn dulled, sunken faces to the skyHaggard and hopeless. They, who have beaten downThe stale despair of night, must now renewTheir desolation in the truce of dawn,Murdering the livid hours that grope for peace. Yet these, who […]

We’d gained our first objective hours beforeWhile dawn broke like a face with blinking eyes,Pallid, unshaved and thirsty, blind with smoke.Things seemed all right at first. We held their line,With bombers posted, Lewis guns well placed,And clink of shovels deepening the shallow trench.The place was rotten with dead; green clumsy legsHigh-booted, sprawled and grovelled along […]

The barrack-square, washed clean with rain,Shines wet and wintry-grey and cold.Young Fusiliers, strong-legged and bold,March and wheel and march again.The sun looks over the barrack gate,Warm and white with glaring shine,To watch the soldiers of the LineThat life has hired to fight with fate. Fall out: the long parades are done.Up comes the dark; down […]

I am banished from the patient men who fight.They smote my heart to pity, built my pride.Shoulder to aching shoulder, side by side,They trudged away from life’s broad wealds of light.Their wrongs were mine; and ever in my sightThey went arrayed in honour. But they died,–Not one by one: and mutinous I criedTo those who […]

Well, how are things in Heaven? I wish you’d say,Because I’d like to know that you’re all right.Tell me, have you found everlasting day,Or been sucked in by everlasting night?For when I shut my eyes your face shows pain;I hear you make some cheery old remark–I can rebuild you in my brain,Though you’ve gone out […]