(@3Our losses were trivial, 728 killed and@1 4,354 @3wounded@1.—European News Item.) Trivial———? To whom? TO WHOM? Not to the dead, Whose battered bodies Are like the shapeless fragments of an image Carelessly crushed by the wanton hand Of a titanic malevolence. In them, the lust of life Flamed as sharp and clear As in the wheezing breasts of the hounds Who foam and whine For the blood They do not have to give. Trivial———? To whom? TO WHOM? Not to the bereaved at home, The tender women Who make gods of the men they love— Their tear-scorched prayers Are of passionate pity for the voiceless dead And of baffled hatred for the boastful living. Trivial———? To whom? TO WHOM? Not to the ferocious enemy, For they too have their dead— The uncounted horde of startled beings, That black treachery, With artful and cunning words, Had lured from the free and turbulent spaces of life To the bleak, eternal confines Of a hurried and undesired grave. Trivial———? To whom? TO WHOM? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE KINGFISHER by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES SONGS OF TRAVEL: 1. THE VAGABOND by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON THE LAST LOOK O' HAME by HEW AINSLIE BARCAROLE: DE VIGNY by E. G. B. OUR BE'THPLEACE by WILLIAM BARNES |