I Stood With the Dead

I Stood with the Dead, so forsaken and still:
When dawn was grey I stood with the Dead.
And my slow heart said, ‘You must kill, you must kill:
‘Soldier, soldier, morning is red’.

On the shapes of the slain in their crumpled disgrace
I stared for a while through the thin cold rain…
‘O lad that I loved, there is rain on your face,
‘And your eyes are blurred and sick like the plain.’

I stood with the Dead… They were dead; they were dead;
My heart and my head beat a march of dismay:
And gusts of the wind came dulled by the guns.
‘Fall in!’ I shouted; ‘Fall in for your pay!’

(2 votes, average: 2.50 out of 5)

Similar poems:

Concert Party (EGYPTIAN BASE CAMP) They are gathering round…. Out of the twilight; over the grey-blue sand, Shoals of low-jargoning men drift […]...

Lovers You were glad to-night: and now you’ve gone away. Flushed in the dark, you put your dreams to bed; But […]...

Autumn October’s bellowing anger breaks and cleaves The bronzed battalions of the stricken wood In whose lament I hear a voice […]...

At Carnoy Down in the hollow there’s the whole Brigade Camped in four groups: through twilight falling slow I hear a sound […]...

In Me, Past, Present, Future meet In me, past, present, future meet To hold long chiding conference. My lusts usurp the present tense And strangle Reason […]...

An Old French Poet When in your sober mood my body have ye laid In sight and sound of things beloved, woodland and stream, […]...

Editorial Impressions He seemed so certain ‘all was going well’, As he discussed the glorious time he’d had While visiting the trenches. […]...

Aftermath Have you forgotten yet?… For the world’s events have rumbled on since those gagged days, Like traffic checked while at […]...

South Wind Where have you been, South Wind, this May-day morning,- With larks aloft, or skimming with the swallow, Or with blackbirds […]...

Fancy Dress Some Brave, awake in you to-night, Knocked at your heart: an eagle’s flight Stirred in the feather on your head. […]...

A Child’s Prayer For Morn, my dome of blue, For Meadows, green and gay, And Birds who love the twilight of the leaves, […]...

Arcady Unheeding Shepherds go whistling on their way In the spring season of the year; One watches weather-signs of day; One of […]...

Does It Matter? Does it matter?-losing your legs? For people will always be kind, And you need not show that you mind When […]...

The Dragon & The Undying All night the flares go up; the Dragon sings And beats upon the dark with furious wings; And, stung to […]...

Wind in the Beechwood The glorying forest shakes and swings with glancing Of boughs that dip and strain; young, slanting sprays Beckon and shift […]...

Limitations If you could crowd them into forty lines! Yes; you can do it, once you get a start; All that […]...

Everyone Sang Everyone suddenly burst out singing; And I was filled with such delight As prisoned birds must find in freedom, Winging […]...

Base Details If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath I’d live with scarlet Majors at the Base, And speed […]...

Wonderment Then a wind blew; And he who had forgot he moved Lonely amid the green and silver morning weather, Suddenly […]...

The Choral Union He staggered in from night and frost and fog And lampless streets: he’d guzzled like a hog And drunk till […]...

The Dark House Dusk in the rain-soaked garden, And dark the house within. A door creaked: someone was early To watch the dawn […]...

Nimrod in September When half the drowsy world’s a-bed And misty morning rises red, With jollity of horn and lusty cheer, Young Nimrod […]...

A Working Party Three hours ago he blundered up the trench, Sliding and poising, groping with his boots; Sometimes he tripped and lurched […]...

Dead Musicians I From you, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, The substance of my dreams took fire. You built cathedrals in my heart, And […]...

Together Splashing along the boggy woods all day, And over brambled hedge and holding clay, I shall not think of him: […]...

Fight to a Finish The boys came back. Bands played and flags were flying, And Yellow-Pressmen thronged the sunlit street To cheer the soldiers […]...

Dream-Forest Where sunshine flecks the green, Through towering woods my way Goes winding all the day. Scant are the flowers that […]...

At Daybreak I listen for him through the rain, And in the dusk of starless hours I know that he will come […]...

Night on the Convoy (ALEXANDRIA-MARSEILLES) Out in the blustering darkness, on the deck A gleam of stars looks down. Long blurs of black, The […]...

Dreamers Soldiers are citizens of death’s gray land, Drawing no dividend from time’s to-morrows. In the great hour of destiny they […]...