Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE TRENCHES by ROBERT RANKE GRAVES

Poet Analysis

First Line: SCRATCHES IN THE DIRT? / NO, THAT SOUNDS MUCH TOO NICE
Last Line: SQUASH! AND HE NEEDS NO TWICE.
Subject(s): WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;
Scratches in the dirt?
No, that sounds much too nice.
Oh, far too nice.
Seems, rather, of a Greyback Shirt,
And we're the little lice
Wriggling about in them a week or two,
Till one day, suddenly, from the blue
Something bloody and big will come
Like - watch this fingernail and thumb! --
Squash! and he needs no twice.


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