A Letter From the Trenches to a School Friend

And there he sung,

Those war-worn veterans among,

Tales of great war and strong hearts wrung,

Of clash of arms, of council's brawl,

Of beauty that must early fall,

Of battle hate and battle joy

By the old windy walls of Troy.

They felt that they were unreal then,

Visions and shadow-forms, not men.

But those the Bard did sing and say

(Some were their comrades, some were they)

Took shape and loomed and strengthened more

Greatly than they had guessed of yore.

And now the fight begins again,

The old war-joy, the old war-pain.

Sons of one school across the sea

We have no fear to fight -