Poems (Kennedy)/No Man's Land
For works with similar titles, see No Man's Land.
"NO MAN'S LAND"
BETWEEN the hostile trenches where
The fight rocks to and fro—
A narrow strip where frenzied hosts
No quarter give or know
It lies—this rendezvous of death
Called "No Man's Land."
The fight rocks to and fro—
A narrow strip where frenzied hosts
No quarter give or know
It lies—this rendezvous of death
Called "No Man's Land."
The men drop in their own red blood
Beyond their comrades' reach,
Or dead, or torn with shot and shell
In agony that passes speech
And shames the savage age of old,
In "No Man's Land."
Beyond their comrades' reach,
Or dead, or torn with shot and shell
In agony that passes speech
And shames the savage age of old,
In "No Man's Land."
Back in the trenches strong men rave
To hear the helpless cries,
But none may venture forth to save
E'en when a brother dies
Upon that awful slaughter-sod
Of "No Man's Land."
To hear the helpless cries,
But none may venture forth to save
E'en when a brother dies
Upon that awful slaughter-sod
Of "No Man's Land."
The wounded, mid the stench of death,
Shriek out their curse or prayer,
And writhe and thirst and curse and die
And rot in wind-rows there,
For barbarism is the creed
Of "No Man's Land."
Shriek out their curse or prayer,
And writhe and thirst and curse and die
And rot in wind-rows there,
For barbarism is the creed
Of "No Man's Land."
They call it well, for human heart
No rood of it would claim,
The devils of inferno hold
The fief in blood and shame,
And hell is but another name
For "No Man's Land."
No rood of it would claim,
The devils of inferno hold
The fief in blood and shame,
And hell is but another name
For "No Man's Land."