Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LINES WRITTEN IN A FIRE-TRENCH, by WALTER SCOTT STUART LYON Poet's Biography First Line: Tis midnight, and above the hollow trench Last Line: The tense, packed faces in the black redoubt. Subject(s): Soldiers' Writings; World War I; First World War | ||||||||
'T IS midnight, and above the hollow trench, Seen through a gaunt wood's battle-blasted trunks And the stark rafters of a shattered grange, The quiet sky hangs huge and thick with stars. And through the vast gloom, murdering its peace, Guns bellow and their shells rush swishing ere They burst in death and thunder, or they fling Wild jangling spirals round the screaming air. Bullets whine by, and Maxims drub like drums, And through the heaped confusion of all sounds One great gun drives its single vibrant "Broum," And scarce five score of paces from the wall Of piled sandbags and barb-toothed nets of wire, (So near and yet what thousand leagues away!) The unseen foe both adds and listens to The selfsame discord, eyed by the same stars. Deep darkness hides the desolated land, Save where a sudden flare sails up and bursts In whitest glare above the wilderness, And for one instant lights with lurid pallor The tense, packed faces in the black redoubt. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!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 EASTER AT YPRES: 1915 by WALTER SCOTT STUART LYON BUCOLIC COMEDY: SERENADE by EDITH SITWELL SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: 18 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING |
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