Spring Offensive

Halted against the shade of a last hill,They fed, and, lying easy, were at easeAnd, finding comfortable chests and kneesCarelessly slept. But many there stood stillTo face the stark, blank sky beyond the ridge,Knowing their feet had come to the end of the world.

Marvelling they stood, and watched the long grass swirledBy the May breeze, murmurous with wasp and midge,For though the summer oozed into their veinsLike the injected drug for their bones' pains,Sharp on their souls hung the imminent line of grass,Fearfully flashed the sky's mysterious glass.

Hour after hour they ponder the warm field--And the far valley behind, where the buttercupsHad blessed with gold their slow boots coming up,Where even the little brambles would not yield,But clutched and clung to them like sorrowing hands;They breathe like trees unstirred.

Till like a cold gust thrilled the little wordAt which each body and its soul begirdAnd tighten them for battle. No alarmsOf bugles, no high flags, no clamorous haste--Only a lift and flare of eyes that facedThe sun, like a friend with whom their love is done.O larger shone that smile against the sun,--Mightier than his whose bounty these have spurned.

So, soon they topped the hill, and raced togetherOver an open stretch of herb and heatherExposed. And instantly the whole sky burnedWith fury against them; and soft sudden cupsOpened in thousands for their blood; and the green slopesChasmed and steepened sheer to infinite space.

Of them who running on that last high placeLeapt to swift unseen bullets, or went upOn the hot blast and fury of hell's upsurge,Or plunged and fell away past this world's verge,Some say God caught them even before they fell.

But what say such as from existence' brinkVentured but drave too swift to sink.The few who rushed in the body to enter hell,And there out-fiending all its fiends and flamesWith superhuman inhumanities,Long-famous glories, immemorial shames--And crawling slowly back, have by degreesRegained cool peaceful air in wonder--Why speak they not of comrades that went under?