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THREE hours ago he blundered up the trench,
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Sliding and poising, groping
with his boots;
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Sometimes he tripped and lurched
against the walls
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With hands that pawed the sodden
bags of chalk.
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He couldn’t see the man who
walked in front;
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5
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Only he heard the drum and
rattle of feet
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Stepping along barred trench
boards, often splashing
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Wretchedly where the sludge was
ankle-deep.
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Voices would grunt ‘Keep to your
right—make way!’
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When squeezing past some men
from the front-line:
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10
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White faces peered, puffing a
point of red;
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Candles and braziers glinted
through the chinks
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And curtain-flaps of dug-outs;
then the gloom
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Swallowed his sense of sight; he
stooped and swore
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Because a sagging wire had
caught his neck.
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15
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A flare went up; the shining
whiteness spread
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And flickered upward, showing
nimble rats
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And mounds of glimmering
sand-bags, bleached with rain;
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Then the slow silver moment died
in dark.
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The wind came posting by with
chilly gusts
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20
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And buffeting at corners, piping
thin.
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And dreary through the crannies;
rifle-shots
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Would split and crack and sing
along the night,
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And shells came calmly through
the drizzling air
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To burst with hollow bang below
the hill.
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25
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Three hours ago he stumbled up
the trench;
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Now he will never walk that road
again:
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He must be carried back, a
jolting lump
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Beyond all need of tenderness
and care.
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He was a young man with a meagre wife
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30
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And two small children in a
Midland town;
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He showed their photographs to
all his mates,
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And they considered him a decent
chap
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Who did his work and hadn’t much
to say,
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And always laughed at other
people’s jokes
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35
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Because he hadn’t any of his
own.
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That night when he was busy at
his job
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Of piling bags along the
parapet,
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He thought how slow time went,
stamping his feet
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And blowing on his fingers,
pinched with cold.
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40
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He thought of getting back by
half-past twelve,
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And tot of rum to send him warm
to sleep
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In draughty dug-out frowsty with the fumes
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Of coke, and full of snoring
weary men.
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He pushed another bag along the
top,
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45
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Craning his body outward; then a
flare
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Gave one white glimpse of No Man’s
Land and wire;
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And as he dropped his head the
instant split
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His startled life with lead, and
all went out.
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