I knew a simple soldier boy Who grinned at life in empty joy, Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, And whistled early with the lark. In winter trenches, cowed and glum, 5 With crumps and lice and lack of rum, He put a bullet through his brain. No one spoke of him again. You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, 10 Sneak home and pray you’ll never know The hell where youth and laughter go.
lark — one of a species of birds (including the skylark and meadowlark) with a particularly happy-sounding song crumps — onomatopoeic word for heavy shelling; Robert Graves said that it also specifically referred to German 7.7 cm artillery shells