It Wasn’t What He Thought. It Was What Had Been Decided For Him…
It wasn’t what he thought.
He had been caught
Up in an enthusiastic,
Frenzied, camaraderie of militaristic
Fervour and nationalism.
And of the thrill of the fight and jingoism
And a laddish, loutish urge
To shake off the workday dirge,
Seek horizons foreign and new,
And to God, King and country be true…
But for him a path had been decided.
Fitness and soldierly training provided,
Then upon a laden vessel, an embarkation
To France and sodden trenches, hell and a realisation
That his destiny had been pre-ordained,
A number, nameless, to be entrained
To awful places where belligerence and cruelty
Would render him dispensable without an identity.
It hadn’t been what he thought,
For an adventure he had sought…
He knew not what they had known.
They simply allowed him and others to believe
In glory’s apparition and go to atone
For political chaos, then helplessly grieve
In a slime-lined front-line trench alone
For pals lost, maimed or dead,
Outcomes the enlisting officer never said…
Pete Ray
25th February 2023
It seems that the Great War war had been inevitable for some time, a number of countries knew that and had been preparing for it for years.
The lower classes then of course were ignorant of the facts, leading to a rush to join the armed forces, almost in a frenzy of excitement.
What generally awaited those ordinary chaps, all once unique individuals, was a chaotic hell for whom individuality counted for nought…
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