Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A HUN, by VINCENT GODFREY BURNS Poet's Biography First Line: He was just a prisoner Last Line: Would never know how bravely a son had died. Subject(s): Courage; Death; Germany; Injustice; Prisoners Of War; Soldiers; Soldiers' Writings; World War I; Valor; Bravery; Dead, The; Germans; First World War | ||||||||
He was just a prisoner, One of a hundred human cattle, Herded back through the lines After a big push over the mud-hill At Montfaucon. Marvelous how he ever came through alive! For he was covered with the thickest mud From head to foot, even to his eyes! Two hard-boiled medical corps "babies" Carried him in, And threw him across a bed With as little care as if he'd been A sack of sawdust. When I came up to him His head almost touched the floor And a Frenchman (badly wounded himself), Who had the next bunk, Was vainly endeavoring to smash out his brains With a bottle in his one free hand. A doughboy cursed me roundly for paying attention To a "Hun"! But I went ahead and scraped his mud off, To find he was a youth Not more than sixteen, A fair-haired, fair-skinned youth, Still breathing, But bleeding terribly from a deep wound in his chest. When I had bathed and bound his wound He opened his eyes, slowly, looked around. "Where am I?" in a soft low-German accent. "In good hands," I said. "We'll take good care of you." "Am I wounded badly?" anxiously he asked. "No, you'll be all right in a few days!" But I had my doubts; it was a bad bayonet cut. "Tell me," I said, "how did you get cut up like this." He threw back his head and looked away. "I put up my hands," he said, "but the American Stabbed me anyway!" He was exhausted from loss of blood; His breathing was labored; His pain must have been great; But there was no sign of complaint. I cheered him up as best I could And went on the rounds again. ... In the morning the fair-haired youth, With the blue eyes, was dead. Some grieving mother in the home-land Would never know how bravely a son had died. | Discover our poem explanations - click here!Other Poems of Interest...D'ANNUNZIO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY 1915: THE TRENCHES by CONRAD AIKEN TO OUR PRESIDENT by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE HORSES by KATHARINE LEE BATES CHILDREN OF THE WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE U-BOAT CREWS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE RED CROSS NURSE by KATHARINE LEE BATES WAR PROFITS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE UNCHANGEABLE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |
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