Lines Written in a Fire-Trench

TIS midnight, and above the hollow trench, Seen through a gaunt wood's battle-blasted trunks And the stark rafters of a shattered grange, The quiet sky hangs huge and thick with stars. And through the vast gloom, murdering its peace, Guns bellow and their shells rush swishing ere They burst in death and thunder, or they fling Wild jangling spirals round the screaming air. Bullets whine by, and Maxims drub like drums, And through the heaped confusion of all sounds One great gun drives its single vibrant "Broum," And scarce five score of paces from the wall Of piled sandbags and barb-toothed nets of wire, (So near and yet what thousand leagues away!)