These fields of bleak white crosses sear my eyes, These rancid shell-holes reeking with green scum Exude a stench that makes me sick and numb, These filthy dugouts stink like Satan's sties, Befouled with sin's demoniacal cries; While violets in spring delirium Peep through a skull's eye-socket, stark and dumb, And over all gleam gorgeous butterflies. And so these bigwigs, armament war-gods Declared with unction @3you@1 must do your bit To make democracy quite safe and sound With your dear life, as cheap as dust and clods You paid -- and yet world peace groans in the pit And man, like Gulliver, still eats the ground. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ENEMY'S PORTRAIT by THOMAS HARDY THOUGHTS OF PHENA AT NEWS OF HER DEATH by THOMAS HARDY SONG by ARTHUR WILLIAM EDGAR O'SHAUGHNESSY PSALM 95 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE TO THE RIVER CHERWELL by WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES BALLADE OF THE IDEAL WAITER by BERTON BRALEY |