Four days the earth was rent and
By bursting steel,
The houses fell about us;
Three nights we dared not sleep,
Sweating, and listening for the imminent
Which meant our death.
The fourth night every man,
Nerve-tortured, racked to exhaustion,
Slept, muttering and twitching,
While the shells crashed overhead.
The fifth day there came a hush;
We left our
And looked above the wreckage of the
To where the white clouds moved in silent
Across the untroubled blue.
