I WENT and walked by Arras
In the dim uncertain night;
I went and walked by Arras
In the dazzling noonday light;
First, I saw a fairy glamour—
Later, 'twas another sight.
Out by Arras in the night-time.
Star-shells in the starlit sky
Showered like wild silver raindrops
From a fountain scattered high.
Like the silver scales of fishes
In the tideway curving by.
Out by Arras in the night-time
There were glints of red and green
Like the glow of fairy camp-fires
In some hidden high wood seen.
Like the day-dawn of the night-land
Where no man has ever been.
Where together men and torture
Lived with foul death hand and hand,
Horror-stricken, God-forsaken,
There stretched far the war-cursed land.
And upon the stretches barren
Far I saw the thousands lie
That the wind of war had blasted,
Sweeping on without a sigh;
In the hollows, huddled hundreds
Who were not afraid to die.
