<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">He Went for a Soldier</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">He</span> marched away with a blithe young score of him</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With the first volunteers,</p><p class="line">Clear-eyed and clean and sound to the core of him,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Blushing under the cheers.</p><p class="line">They were fine, new flags that swung a-flying there,</p><p class="line">Oh, the pretty girls he glimpsed a-crying there,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Pelting him with pinks and with roses</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Billy, the Soldier Boy!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Not very clear in the kind young heart of him</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">What the fuss was about,</p><p class="line">But the flowers and the flags seemed part of him --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The music drowned his doubt.</p><p class="line">It's a fine, brave sight they were a-coming there</p><p class="line">To the gay, bold tune they kept a-drumming there,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">While the boasting fifes shrilled jauntily --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Billy, the Soldier Boy!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Soon he is one with the blinding smoke of it --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Volley and curse and groan:</p><p class="line">Then he has done with the knightly joke of it --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">It's rending flesh and bone.</p><p class="line">There are pain-crazed animals a-shrieking there</p><p class="line">And a warm blood stench that is a-reeking there;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He fights like a rat in a corner --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Billy, the Soldier Boy!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">There he lies now, like a ghoulish score of him,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Left on the field for dead:</p><p class="line">The ground all around is smeared with the gore of him</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Even the leaves are red.</p><p class="line">The Thing that was Billy lies a-dying there,</p><p class="line">Writhing and a-twisting and a-crying there;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">A sickening sun grins down on him --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Billy, the Soldier Boy!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Still not quite clear in the poor, wrung heart of him</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">What the fuss was about,</p><p class="line">See where he lies -- or a ghastly part of him --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">While life is oozing out:</p><p class="line">There are loathsome things he sees a-crawling there;</p><p class="line">There are hoarse-voiced crows he hears a-calling there,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Eager for the foul feast spread for them --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Billy, the Soldier Boy!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">How much longer, O Lord, shall we bear it all?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">How many more red years?</p><p class="line">Story it and glory it and share it all,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">In seas of blood and tears?</p><p class="line">They are braggart attitudes we've worn so long;</p><p class="line">They are tinsel platitudes we've sworn so long --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">We who have turned the Devil's Grindstone,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Borne with the hell called War!</p></div><p class="byline">-- Ruth Comfort Mitchell.</p></body></html> · Great War