The Royal Artillery Memorial, London, England and 'Trenches: St. Eloi' by T. E. Hulme who was killed September 28, 1917 while serving with the Royal Marine Artillery. © 2013 by John M. Shea

Trenches: St Eloi

Over the flat slope of St Eloi

A wide wall of sand bags.

Night,

In the silence desultory men

Pottering over small fires, cleaning their mess-tins:

To and fro, from the lines,

Men walk about as on Piccadilly,

Making paths in the dark,

Through scattered dead horses,

Over a dead Belgian's belly.



The Germans have rockets. The English have no rockets.

Behind the line, hidden, lying back miles.

Before the line, chaos:



My mind is a corridor. The minds about me are corridors.

Nothing suggests itself. There is nothing to do but keep on.

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Friday, September 28, 1917

"Trenches: St Eloi

Over the flat slope of St Eloi

A wide wall of sand bags.

Night,

In the silence desultory men

Pottering over small fires, cleaning their mess-tins:

To and fro, from the lines,

Men walk about as on Piccadilly,

Making paths in the dark,

Through scattered dead horses,

Over a dead Belgian's belly.



The Germans have rockets. The English have no rockets.

Behind the line, cannon, hidden, lying back miles.

Before the line, chaos:



My mind is a corridor. The minds about me are corridors.

Nothing suggests itself. There is nothing to do but keep on."

Quotation Context

Trenches: St Eloi by T. E. Hulme, killed September 28, 1917 by a German shell. Hulme served with the Royal Marine Artillery at Oost-Duinkerke behind Nieuport on the Belgian channel coast.

Source

The Lost Voices of World War I, An International Anthology of Writers, Poets and Playwrights by Tim Cross, page 51, copyright © 1989 by The University of Iowa, publisher: University of Iowa Press, publication date: 1989

Tags

1917-09-28, 1917, September, T. E. Hulme, Hulme, Royal Marine Artillery, Royal Artillery, Marine Artillery