REMORSE
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ost in the swamp and welter of the pit,He flounders off the duck-boards; only he knowsEach flash and spouting crash,--each instant litWhen gloom reveals the streaming rain. He goesHeavily, blindly on. And, while he blunders,"Could anything be worse than this?"--he wonders,Remembering how he saw those Germans run,Screaming for mercy among the stumps of trees:Green-faced, they dodged and darted: there was oneLivid with terror, clutching at his knees....Our chaps were sticking 'em like pigs.... "O hell!"He thought--"there's things in war one dare not tellPoor father sitting safe at home, who readsOf dying heroes and their deathless deeds."
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