<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Fallen Subaltern</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">The</span> starshells float above, the bayonets glisten;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">We bear our fallen friend without a sound;</p><p class="line">Below the waiting legions lie and listen</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To us, who march upon their burial-ground.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Wound in the flag of England, here we lay him;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The guns will flash and thunder o'er the grave;</p><p class="line">What other winding sheet should now array him,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">What other music should salute the brave?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">As goes the Sun-god in his chariot glorious,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">When all his golden banners are unfurled,</p><p class="line">So goes the soldier, fallen but victorious,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And leaves behind a twilight in the world.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And those who come this way, in days hereafter,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Will know that here a boy for England fell,</p><p class="line">Who looked at danger with the eyes of laughter,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And on the charge his days were ended well.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">One last salute; the bayonets clash and glisten;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With arms reversed we go without a sound:</p><p class="line">One more has joined the men who lie and listen</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To us, who march upon their burial-ground.</p></div><p class="byline">Herbert Asquith</p><p> 1915 </p></body></html> · Great War