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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A DEAD BOCHE by ROBERT RANKE GRAVES

Poet Analysis

First Line: TO YOU WHO'D READ MY SONGS OF WAR / AND ONLY HEAR OF BLOOD AND FAME
Last Line: DRIBBLING BLACK BLOOD FROM NOSE AND BEARD.
Subject(s): WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;
TO you who'd read my songs of War
And only hear of blood and fame,
I'll say (you've heard it said before)
"War's Hell!" and if you doubt the same,
Today I found in Mametz Wood
A certain cure for lust of blood:

Where, propped against a shattered trunk,
In a great mess of things unclean,
Sat a dead Boche; he scowled and stunk
With clothes and face a sodden green,
Big-bellied, spectacled, crop-haired,
Dribbling black blood from nose and beard.




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