The
Menin Road
By
Oscar Walters
Last night I saw the Menin Road again.
I saw it at the dawn of a dull day,
Slimy beneath the tread of marching men,
Who vanished swiftly in the chilling grey.
Above them shrapnel burst; on either side
The wreck of war in rotting heaps was piled.
Haggard and wan, they trod with deathless pride
This grim road running through a world defiled.
And as they went they sang a soldiers’ song
The words of which, it seemed, bore little sense.
Somehow, I knew they felt, though all was wrong,
The journey’s end would give them recompense.
Alike and yet unlike the track I knew
Was this grim way my old companions went.
I gazed until they vanished from my view.
Then woke to envy them their good content.
Last night I saw them trudging ’neath their loads,
And envied them whose lives are now complete;
They never knew that, like all other roads,
The Menin Road led only to defeat.
No comments:
Post a Comment