I never really longed for gore,
And any taste for red corpuscles
That lingered with me left before
The German troops had entered Brussels.
In early days the Colonel's "'Shun!"
Froze me; and, as the War grew older,
The noise of someone else's gun
Left me considerably colder.

_When the War is over and the battle has been won,_
_I'm going to buy a barnacle and take it for a run;_
_When the War is over and the German Fleet we sink,_
_I'm going to keep a silk-worm's egg and listen to it think._

The Captains and the Kings depart--
It may be so, but not lieutenants;
Dawn after weary dawn I start
The never-ending round of penance;
One rock amid the welter stands
On which my gaze is fixed intently--
An after-life in quiet lands
Lived very lazily and gently.

_When the War is over and we've done the Belgians proud,_
_I'm going to keep a chrysalis and read to it aloud;_
_When the War is over and we've finished up the show,_
_I'm going to plant a lemon-pip and listen to it grow._

Oh, I'm tired of the noise and the turmoil of battle,
And I'm even upset by the lowing of cattle,