No doubt they?ll soon get well; the shock and strain 
Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk. 
Of course they?re `longing to go out again,?? 
These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk. 
They?ll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed 
Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,? 
Their dreams that drip with murder; and they?ll be proud 
Of glorious war that shatter?d all their pride... 
Men who went out to battle, grim and glad; 
Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad. 


Craiglockart. October, 1917.