Killed Paive--July 8--1918

Desire

All the sweet pulsing

And gentle

That were you,

Are gone into the sullen dark.

Now in the night you come

To lie with meA dull, cold, rigid

On my hot-swollen, throbbing soul.

Before America entered the war Hemingway volunteered and served in the ambulance corps in France; he was transferred to the Paive region of Italy in July, 1918, and shortly after on July 8 was wounded in a mortar attack. This poem apparently looks back to that day.