<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">PART III</h1><h1 align="" class="head">i</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">What troglodytes are these,--these men like moles,</p><p class="line">Who tunnel in the soil their saps and mines,</p><p class="line">Or burrow holes,</p><p class="line">Into the rocks under the roots of pines;</p><p class="line">Who make their homes</p><p class="line">In catacombs,</p><p class="line">Or crouch on rotten planks and muddy logs</p><p class="line">In desolate obscene Serbonian bogs;</p><p class="line">Who in the craters of the riven land</p><p class="line">Contrive their hornet-nests with bags of sand,</p><p class="line">And mud, and slime,--</p><p class="line">Are these weird creatures all alive with lice,</p><p class="line">And black with grime</p><p class="line">Our sons, our fathers, and our husbands! Yea,</p><p class="line">This is the altar of their sacrifice,</p><p class="line">This is the price</p><p class="line">That for your sakes they pay.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">ii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Hour follows barren hour, till heart and brain</p><p class="line">Grow stagnant as the water in the trench.</p><p class="line">Penned in a aitch upon a muddy plain,</p><p class="line">Poisoned and palsied by the sickly stench--</p><p class="line">The festering corruption of the slain,</p><p class="line">Body and soul seem impotent and vain.</p><p class="line">There in a bloody pool</p><p class="line">A carrion crow pecks at a bloated horse;</p><p class="line">And some poor fool,</p><p class="line">Sniped like a frightened rabbit in the gorse,</p><p class="line">Has left on No-man's Land his huddled corse;</p><p class="line">And there some forty—fifty yards away,</p><p class="line">Lusting to slay,</p><p class="line">The toe makes caves</p><p class="line">And pits, and graves,</p><p class="line">In the same mud and clay,</p><p class="line">Yet none have hate</p><p class="line">Save against Fate</p><p class="line">That turns poor simple men into wild beasts of prey.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">iii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Can this foul charnel damp,</p><p class="line">This spiritual cramp,</p><p class="line">This lewd stagnation of the soul be war?</p><p class="line">Where are the battle-cries,</p><p class="line">The flashing eyes,</p><p class="line">The flying banners and the spears of Thor?</p><p class="line">Here there are only mud, and filth, and flies,</p><p class="line">And foul obscenities men's hearts abhor.</p><p class="line">Where are the flaming hope, the fiery cross</p><p class="line">That called us to the rampart and the fosse?</p><p class="line">Alas, alas, faint, far-away they seem</p><p class="line">Like a dim memory of a holy dream.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">iv</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Now Moloch goes to reap,</p><p class="line">Across the sky his search-lights wheel and flash,</p><p class="line">His livid lightnings leap,</p><p class="line">His thunders crash.</p><p class="line">The gobbling howitzers and whinneying guns</p><p class="line">Sound like the howling billows of the deep,</p><p class="line">Hurled on a rocky steep</p><p class="line">By a tornado's ire.</p><p class="line">The tumult stupefies and stuns</p><p class="line">Spirit and sense, as, like a devil's choir,</p><p class="line">Ten thousand mouths of steel give tongue and spit,</p><p class="line">In stuttering staccato, lead and fire.</p><p class="line">The bullets of the shrapnel hiss and thud,</p><p class="line">The star-shells burst in bud,</p><p class="line">Orange, and green, and red;</p><p class="line">The rockets rise and spread,</p><p class="line">Their blossoms overhead;</p><p class="line">And every trench and every crater-pit</p><p class="line">Is blotched with blood</p><p class="line">And dappled with the dead.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">v</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The belching mortars with war-drunken breath</p><p class="line">Hiccup forth shells, whose entrails--flame and death--</p><p class="line">Make every mound and parapet a pyre,</p><p class="line">And bloody shards that turn the spirit sick</p><p class="line">Lie mangled in the mire,</p><p class="line">Or on the barbèd wire</p><p class="line">Where the infernal flammenwerfer lick</p><p class="line">Shrivel and blacken. E'en the gracious air</p><p class="line">That has been wont to tremble into prayer,</p><p class="line">To throb and thrill</p><p class="line">And vibrate into music at our will,</p><p class="line">Is turned to steel and stone, and strikes to kill;</p><p class="line">While poisonous and thick,</p><p class="line">Out of strange Stygian glooms,</p><p class="line">Wreath after yellow wreath,</p><p class="line">Rise acrid fumes</p><p class="line">That grip and tear the throat like fiery teeth</p><p class="line">Of some grim dragon snorting flames of hell,</p><p class="line">Yea, grip with grip accurst</p><p class="line">Till the blue veins upon the forehead swell</p><p class="line">And the blear eyeballs burst.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">vi</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Above the vapour, loom the monstrous wings</p><p class="line">Of fierce uncanny harpy things--</p><p class="line">White hawks and kites of hate that whir and fly</p><p class="line">Dropping down death from the unheeding sky.</p><p class="line">Across the plain with mighty mottled flanks</p><p class="line">Waddle reptilian tanks--</p><p class="line">Iguanodons and Juggernauts of steel--</p><p class="line">These nose their way</p><p class="line">Through mud and clay</p><p class="line">And crush and mutilate with cloven heel</p><p class="line">The fallen and the dying, till the mud</p><p class="line">Is like a winepress, purpurate with blood</p><p class="line">Of mangled mortals. On the sea afloat</p><p class="line">Great Boats of Battle cleave the waves asunder.</p><p class="line">Keel after keel.</p><p class="line">And stertorously, through the strident throat</p><p class="line">Of giant guns, join in the battle thunder.</p><p class="line">While deep thereunder</p><p class="line">In the blue water's mirk</p><p class="line">There slink and lurk</p><p class="line">Black submarines, like devils with a dirk.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">vii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Now through the forests drives the shrapnel hail;</p><p class="line">Great jaggèd flying hatchets hew and hack,</p><p class="line">And whirling blazing flambeaus flash and flare,</p><p class="line">Flaying the beeches bare,</p><p class="line">Burning the birches black.</p><p class="line">The woods are threshed as by a flaming flail</p><p class="line">The mighty branches splinter, split, and crack,</p><p class="line">The growth of twenty centuries, alack,</p><p class="line">The patient carpentry of sun and rain,</p><p class="line">The moonbeams' and the sunbeams' bivouac,</p><p class="line">Becomes a piteous wrack--</p><p class="line">A black and bloody shambles of the slain,</p><p class="line">A Golgotha of skulls, a hideous house of Pain.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">viii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">O friendly trees,</p><p class="line">O brave brown branches swaying in the breeze</p><p class="line">Full of young hopes, full of old memories,</p><p class="line">O cool green leaves that whispered to the moon,</p><p class="line">Or threw the tune</p><p class="line">Of singing thrushes to the evening air,</p><p class="line">Or scattered dew upon the thirsty sod</p><p class="line">How ye are hacked and hewn</p><p class="line">Nought now but shrivelled blackened stumps are there,</p><p class="line">As tho' a leprous blasphemous Despair</p><p class="line">Uplifted handless arms to heartless God!</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">ix</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The craterous soil bludgeoned, and scalped, and tossed,</p><p class="line">Is like a stormy sea congealed by frost,</p><p class="line">And every hummocky wave</p><p class="line">Of mud and clay</p><p class="line">Is like a mighty barrow grave,--</p><p class="line">An ossuary of the brave,</p><p class="line">Frozen, and still, and grey.</p><p class="line">Ah bitter barren sea thy tide devours--</p><p class="line">Thy surf and spume</p><p class="line">Engulf, entomb</p><p class="line">Hamlets, and thorps, and cottages, and towers,</p><p class="line">Castles and palaces, and barns and bields,</p><p class="line">Orchards and gardens, white and red with flowers,</p><p class="line">Arcades of roses, honeysuckle-bowers,</p><p class="line">Vineyards, and olive-groves, and harvest-fields!</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">x</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Ah bitter barren sea!</p><p class="line">The quiet home where children used to play</p><p class="line">Or kneel and pray</p><p class="line">Beside a mother's knee</p><p class="line">Huddles a heap of rubble in the mire,</p><p class="line">Or, burnt by fire,</p><p class="line">Stands like a dead man's dream</p><p class="line">Nor light, nor love, nor joyance may redeem--</p><p class="line">Stands with black rafters where the blind bats sway</p><p class="line">Like little corses on a gibbet beam--</p><p class="line">Where the rats climb and scamper night and day,</p><p class="line">And carrion-crows</p><p class="line">In greedy rows</p><p class="line">Wrangle and scream</p><p class="line">Above their prey.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xi</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">All that Love's labour through long years of toil</p><p class="line">Had sorely wrested from the stubborn soil--</p><p class="line">The white-washed cottage with the thatchèd eaves</p><p class="line">And portico entwined with ivy leaves,</p><p class="line">The rugged poplars of the avenue,</p><p class="line">The hedges glistening with morning dew</p><p class="line">Strung like round pearls upon a gossamer thread,</p><p class="line">All these are gone--all these are gone and dead.</p><p class="line">The olive-groves, the vines, the wheat, the maize,</p><p class="line">The meadows where the kine were wont to graze,</p><p class="line">The cosy arbour in the orchard nook,</p><p class="line">The rustic bridge across the gurgling brook</p><p class="line">To the old mossy drowsy droning mill,--</p><p class="line">All these the tides of fire and death erase</p><p class="line">And rend, and burn, and blacken.</p><p class="line">Yea, and still</p><p class="line">The howling havoc sweeps across the land.</p><p class="line">Valley and moor, and hill</p><p class="line">Are scourged and devastated. Bomb and brand</p><p class="line">Murder and maim,</p><p class="line">Ravage and rape.</p><p class="line">Cathedrals topple, cities fall in flame,</p><p class="line">And church-yards yawn and gape.</p><p class="line">There in his shrine Christ is re-crucified:</p><p class="line">The bullets on the nails like hammers beat:</p><p class="line">The bayonets are in his wounded side;</p><p class="line">The daggers have transfixed his patient feet.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Behold the tabid tundra-land of Sin</p><p class="line">Where like a yellow mist from brackish streams</p><p class="line">Drift melancholy ghosts of Hopes and Dreams!</p><p class="line">Behold the dreary deadland where the thin</p><p class="line">Fingers of Famine rake the garbage heap</p><p class="line">Seeking a crust therein,--</p><p class="line">Where Pestilence and Plague with jaundiced skin</p><p class="line">Shamble and creep--</p><p class="line">Where ghastly bundles in the petrol steep,</p><p class="line">And flames incredible begin to leap</p><p class="line">Robbing the rats and maggots of their prey--</p><p class="line">Round pitiful thing in bloody brown and grey,</p><p class="line">Where buried in some dug-out like a tomb</p><p class="line">Men in the gloom</p><p class="line">Despairing lie</p><p class="line">And call in vain to Death and cannot die!</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xiii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Here huddle all the scarred,</p><p class="line">The halt, the lame,</p><p class="line">Those blinded, broken, marred</p><p class="line">By steel and flame.</p><p class="line">Here the mad walk apart</p><p class="line">With tears in their heart,--</p><p class="line">Tears that will not flow</p><p class="line">That will not gently rise</p><p class="line">To cool their aching eyes</p><p class="line">Scalded with tearless woe.</p><p class="line">They cannot weep, but sometimes laughter vain</p><p class="line">Shrieks on their lips</p><p class="line">Where still there drips</p><p class="line">The dregs of some red cup of poisoned pain</p><p class="line">Whose draught has slain the soul and seared the brain.</p><p class="line">Behold the land where men their victories win!</p><p class="line">Behold the dreary tundra-land of Sin!</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xiv</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Yet still in Tartaræan glooms,</p><p class="line">In muddy pits like fetid tombs,</p><p class="line">The thunder-fiends of battle stoke</p><p class="line">The lightning fires of tragic dooms,</p><p class="line">And woolly wisps of yellow smoke,</p><p class="line">And green, and red, and purple fumes,</p><p class="line">Like feathery funereal plumes,</p><p class="line">Flutter, or on the wind upborne.</p><p class="line">Billow and fly</p><p class="line">Upon the sky</p><p class="line">Like splendid banners slashed and torn.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xv</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The planet is all tumult and turmoil,</p><p class="line">And madly on the pocked and pitted soil</p><p class="line">Drums Death's insane hysterical tattoo--</p><p class="line">The carmagnole of guns, <em>la folie des obus</em>.</p><p class="line">The whole air cleft asunder</p><p class="line">Reverberates in thunder,</p><p class="line">Whines, whimpers, whinnies, shudders, shrieks and screams</p><p class="line">As though the stars were on the mountains hurled</p><p class="line">By demons in demoniac nightmare dreams,</p><p class="line">As though the Earth's foundation-stones were riven,</p><p class="line">As though by plectron of a bomb, or shell,</p><p class="line">Or twitching fingertips of fire, or levin,</p><p class="line">Death plucked the nerves and sinews of the world,</p><p class="line">Strung on a harp whose pedestal was set</p><p class="line">Upon the flaming floor of hell,</p><p class="line">And yet</p><p class="line">Whose pillars propped the very roof of heaven.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xvi</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The thunder pauses. With a shriek and roar</p><p class="line">"Over the top" surges a line of steel.</p><p class="line">Behind cascades of fire that foam before,</p><p class="line">The hounds of war go baying at Death's heel,--</p><p class="line">Go baying on a trail of human gore.</p><p class="line">Out of the broken trenches blink and peer</p><p class="line">The beady eyes of muddy human moles</p><p class="line">That glitter with alternate hate and fear</p><p class="line">Like wind-swept incalescent brazier coals.</p><p class="line">Death is upon them, the bright steel grows red,</p><p class="line">And greedy Hate is glutted with the dead.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xvii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The "Push" is over, and ten thousand things</p><p class="line">That once were Nature's lords and Nature's Kings</p><p class="line">That once were men, lie writhing in the clay,</p><p class="line">Lie with pink bubbles frothing on their lips,</p><p class="line">With gaping wounds from which their life-blood drips,</p><p class="line">With filmy eyes o'ershadowed by eclipse,</p><p class="line">With arms and legs and faces shot away.</p><p class="line">O fair white bodies lying in the mud</p><p class="line">So stiff and grey,</p><p class="line">Once in your hearts there leapt the living blood,</p><p class="line">Once your cold lips could love, and sing, and pray,</p><p class="line">Once women at your coming knew the kiss</p><p class="line">Of husband, father, brother, lover, son.</p><p class="line">Alas, alas, how have ye come to this</p><p class="line">What have ye done?</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xviii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Has Fate no pity, and has Hate no ruth?</p><p class="line">Did God the Maker blunder</p><p class="line">Making your bodies' wonder</p><p class="line">Filling your hearts with love your minds with truth?</p><p class="line">Did God the Father blunder</p><p class="line">Making your bodies' wonder,</p><p class="line">Filling your limbs with force your souls with fire</p><p class="line">With all the dreams and all the hopes of youth,</p><p class="line">To leave you bloody carrion in the mire?</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xix</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Nay, who can tell what such a death may mean?</p><p class="line">To be o'ertaken</p><p class="line">By lightning and by thunder:</p><p class="line">To feel the keen</p><p class="line">Sharp blade divide asunder</p><p class="line">Body and soul, the unseen and the seen !</p><p class="line">To be reborn</p><p class="line">Through the sky rent and torn</p><p class="line">And on a sudden waken</p><p class="line">Into a peace serene</p><p class="line">Into the radiance of eternal morn?</p><p class="line">Who, who can guess, what such a birth may mean</p><p class="line">To him who goes with body young and clean</p><p class="line">To him who goes With spirit pure and fresh,</p><p class="line">Unknowing blemish and unwotting blame,</p><p class="line">In hot pursuit of some immortal aim</p><p class="line">Out of the flesh?</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xx</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">A warrior, a lover</p><p class="line">What hopes and dreams will hover</p><p class="line">Around his head</p><p class="line">What beauty will his spirit</p><p class="line">Develop and discover</p><p class="line">What glory-land of merit</p><p class="line">Inhabit and inherit</p><p class="line">There in the starry kingdom of the immortal dead?</p><p class="line">Surely he will come forth exultant, whole,</p><p class="line">Happy, victorious, and unafraid,</p><p class="line">A shining, joyous, liberated soul</p><p class="line">Knighted by Death's immortal accolade!</p></div></body></html> · Great War