1914 (a century on)

1. They went willing to war

The young men drunk on duty.

Brimful of youthful confidence,

Their tide coursed full

To cause of King and country,

Their fulsome sorry belief:

“She’ll be done by Christmas”.

Christ, in mercy it were so!

2. Now reached the testing ground,

Their bronze bodies, shells

Primed and launched, salvos

Shrieked o’er trenches’ top,

Burst on opposèd lines,

Or spent, exploded, on limits

Lying shrapnel pieces.

Christ, in mercy grant them rest!

3. Else, gagging mustard murk

And fogged in chlorine green,

Cross-like hung on wires

To cease in no-man’s-land.

Or drowned in shell-hole pits,

In trenches darkly sepulchred

Their choked sighs silenced.

Christ, in mercy teach us peace!

4. In shrunken country towns,

Sometimes seeming nowhere,

Sandstone monuments lone

Stand rigid to attention

Greyed-old lead pencils

The bleaching bones of names

Forgot in once-home districts.

Christ, in love remember us!