The beating of the guns grows louder.
"Not long, boys, now."
My heart burns whiter, fearfuller, prouder;
Hurricanes grow
As guns redouble their fire.
Through the shaken periscope peeping
I glimpse their wire:
Black earth, fountains of earth rise, leaping,
Spouting like shocks of meeting waves.
Death's fountains are playing,
Shells like shrieking birds rush over;
Crash and din rises higher.
A stream of lead raves
Over us from the left… (we safe under cover!)
Crash.  Reverberation.  Crash!
Acrid smoke billowing.  Flash upon flash.
Black smoke drifting.  The German line
Vanishes in confusion, smoke.  Cries, and cry
Of our men, "Gah, yer swine!
Ye're for it," die
In a hurricane of shell.

One cry;
"We're comin' soon!  look out!"
There is opened hell
Over there.  Fragments fly,
Rifles and bits of men whirled at the sky:
Dust, smoke, thunder.  A sudden bout
Of machine-guns chattering….
And redoubled battering
As if in fury at their daring….

No good staring.

Time soon now… home… house on a sunny hill….
Gone like a flickered page.
Time soon now… zero… will engage…

A sudden thrill.
"Fix bayonets."
Gods!  we have our fill
Of fear, hysteria, exultation, rage,
Rage to kill.

My heart burns hot, whiter and whiter,
Contracts tighter and tighter,
Until I stifle with the will
Long forged, now used
(Though utterly strained)—
O pounding heart,
Baffled, confused,
Heart panged, head singing, dizzily pained —
To do my part.

Blindness a moment.  Sick.
There the men are.
Bayonets ready: click!
Time goes quick;
A stumbled prayer… somehow a blazing star
In a blue night… where?
Again prayer.
The tongue trips.  Start:
How's time?  Soon now.  Two minutes or less.
The guns' fury mounting higher...
Their utmost.  I lift a silent hand.  Unseen I bless
Those hearts will follow me.
And beautifully,
Now beautifully my will grips.
Soul calm and round and filmed and white!

A shout!  "Men, no such order as retire!"
I nod.
                The whistle's twixt my lips….
I catch
A wan, worn smile at me.
Dear men!
The pale wrist-watch….
The quiet hand ticks on amid the din.
The guns again
Rise to a last fury, to a rage, a lust:
Kill!  Pound!  Kill!  Pound!  Pound!
Now comes the thrust,
My part… dizziness… will… but trust
These men.  The great guns rise.
Their fury seems to burst the earth and skies!

They lift!

Gather, heart, all thoughts that drift;
Be steel, soul,
Compress thyself
Into a round, bright whole.
I cannot speak.

Time!  Time!

I hear my whistle shriek
Between teeth set,
I fling an arm up,
Scramble up the grime
Over the parapet!

I'm up.  Go on.
Something meets us.
Head down into the storm that greets us.
A wail!
Lights.  Blurr.
Gone.
On, on.  Lead.  Lead.  Hail.
Spatter.  Whirr.  Whirr.
"Toward that patch of brown,
Direction left."  Bullets: a stream.
Devouring thought crying in a dream;
Men, crumpled, going down….
Go on.  Go.
Deafness, Numbness.  The loudening tornado.
Bullets.  Mud.  Stumbling and skating.
My voice's strangled shout:—
"Steady pace, boys!"
The still light: gladness.
"Look, sir. Look out!"
Ha!  ha!  Bunched figures waiting.
Revolver levelled quick!
Flick!  Flick!
Red as blood.
Germans.  Germans.
Good!  O good!
Cool madness.

I sat me down and looked around
The little lamp-lit room, and saw
Where many pictures gloomed and frowned
In sad, still life, nor made a sound—
A many for one to draw:
Shadow and sea and ground
Held by the artist's law,
Beauty without a flaw,
All with a sense profound.

One teeming brain was wood and hill,
And sloping pastures wide and green,
And cool, deep seas where rivers spill
The snows of mountains far and chill,
Sad pools where the shadows lean.
Old trees that hang so still.
Fields which the reapers glean.
Plains where the wind is keen.
Each with a nerve to thrill.

Elusive figures swayed and yearned
By lake and misty greenwood dim,
Seeking in sorrow: they had learned
In one night's dream might be discerned,
A pace from the world's rim,
Wages their woe had earned,
Rest from the labour grim,
God and the peace of Him—
These in a frame interned.

On through the forest, one step on,
One step, O Powers, let me attain
This hard, dead step, let me be gone
Back where I and the morning shone,
Back ere the dream shall wane
When I and a star were one.
Seen through the veils of pain
Glory shall shine again:
God, has the vision gone?