Classic Poem

An Incident of the Great War.

We charged at Vimy, — zero was at four;
Sore-eyed we rose and cursed the bleeding war,
And sick at heart, half paralyzed with fear,
Waited in mud and mist — it seemed a year —
Talking in whispers while we gulped the gin;
And John, our sergeant, looked scared-white and thin,
(This was his first trip over) as he said:
" I wish we'd go; one might as well be dead
As in this slaughter-pen. What fools we are!
What poor, damned fools! " . .
A murmer from afar
Like wind through winter branches rose and fell
Along the line, — and up we went pell-mell,
Kicking the ladders backward in the mud, —
Crazy as loons, thirsting for German blood!

Then broke the storm like thunder on the plain!
The heavens roared — the shrapnel fell like rain;
Through the dun mist of dawn we groped and ran
In a long wave up that infernal hill,
Dodging black stumps and blacker pits until
I tripped on what had onetime been a man
And fell headlong with a torn and bleeding thigh —
Angry and helpless while the storm drove by;
Thinking of John and the children there I lay
And watched the sullen sky grow ashen gray ...

They found him hanging dead upon the wire, —
Caught like a fly in a huge spider-net ...
In a few days the Colonel came to inquire
If I were well, and how my leg was set:
" You should have seen the troops! God! They were splendid! "
" Was the wire cut? " I asked.
His laughter ended.
" By some mischance our barrage fell too high;
The boys got badly tangled as they came, "
He answered. " But our staff was not to blame. "

" A pity that so many had to die
Through negligence! " I said, and turned my face.

" I shall report the matter to the base, " —
His quick retort. " It was a bloody shame;
But then, we'd men to spare and there's no blame
So far as we're concerned ... Lord! how they died! "

He smiled and went. And as I saw him ride
Down that charred slope — his orderly abaft —
I cried to Heaven, — and wondered if God laughed!