Break of Day in the Trenches

by Isaac Rosenberg

　　

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Break of Day in the Trenches is from Rosenberg's war poetry series, Poems of Camp and Trench.

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The darkness crumbles away- It is the same old druid Time as ever. Only a live thing leaps my hand- A queer sardonic rat- As I pull the parapet's poppy To stick behind my ear. Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew Your cosmopolitan sympathies. Now you have touched this English hand You will do the same to a German- Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure To cross the sleeping green between. It seems you inwardly grin as you pass Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes Less chanced than you for life, Bonds to the whims of murder, Sprawled in the bowels of the earth, The torn fields of France. What do you see in our eyes At the shrieking iron and flame Hurled through still heavens? What quaver - what heart aghast? Poppies whose roots are in man's veins Drop, and are ever dropping; But mine in my ear is safe, Just a little white with the dust.

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You may also be interested in our collection of World War I Literature.

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