<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">Ghosts of War</h1><h1 align="smallcap" class="head">(Sent from France in October 1917)</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">WHEN you and I are buried</p><p class="line">With grasses over head,</p><p class="line">The memory of our fights will stand</p><p class="line">Above this bare and tortured land,</p><p class="line">We knew ere we were dead.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Though grasses grow on Vimy,</p><p class="line">And poppies at Messines,</p><p class="line">And in High Wood the children play,</p><p class="line">The craters and the graves will stay</p><p class="line">To show what things have been.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Though all be quiet in day-time,</p><p class="line">The night shall bring a change,</p><p class="line">And peasants walking home shall see</p><p class="line">Shell-torn meadow and riven tree,</p><p class="line">And their own fields grown strange.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They shall hear live men crying,</p><p class="line">They shall see dead men lie,</p><p class="line">Shall hear the rattling Maxims fire,</p><p class="line">And see by broken twists of wire</p><p class="line">Gold flares light up the sky.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And in their new-built houses</p><p class="line">The frightened folk will see</p><p class="line">Pale bombers coming down the street,</p><p class="line">And hear the flurry of charging feet,</p><p class="line">And the crash of Victory.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">This is our Earth baptizèd</p><p class="line">With the red wine of War.</p><p class="line">Horror and courage hand in hand</p><p class="line">Shall brood upon the stricken land</p><p class="line">In silence evermore.</p></div></body></html> · Great War