The Iron Music

The French guns roll continuously
And our guns, heavy, slow;
Along the Ancre, sinuously,
The transport wagons go,
And the dust is on the thistles
And the larks sing up on high…
But I see the Golden Valley
Down by Tintern on the Wye

For it’s just nine weeks last Sunday
Since we took the Chepstow train,
And I’m wondering if one day
We shall do the like again;
for the four-point-two’s come screaming
Thro’ the sausages on high;
So there’s little use in dreaming
How we walked above the Wye.

Dust and corpses in the thistles
Where the pas-shells burst like snow,
And the shrapnel screams and whistles
On the Bécourt road below,
And the High Wood bursts and bristles
Where the mine-clouds foul the sky…
But I’m with you up at Wyndcroft,
Over Tintern on the Wye.