Love have I known, and dawn and gold of day-time,
And winds and songs and all the joys that are
Known once, and as a child that tires with play-time,
Leaped from them to the elemental dust of War.
I have seen blood and death, but all has ending,
And even Horror is but made to cease;
I am sickened with Love that lives only for lending,
And all the loathsome pettiness of peace.
Give me, God of Battles, a field of death,
A Hell of Fire, a strong man’s agony…
“Ploegsteert,” by Leighton, Roland (1895-1915). First World War Poetry Digital Archive, accessed July 27, 2015, http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/4067.