Prose & Poetry - The Muse in Arms - The Field of Honour
Updated - Saturday, 31 May, 2003

First published in London in November 1917 and reprinted in February 1918 The Muse in Arms comprised, in the words of editor E. B. Osborne:

"A collection of war poems, for the most part written in the field of action, by seamen, soldiers, and flying men who are serving, or have served, in the Great War".

Below is one of eight poems featured within the School and College section of the collection.  You can access other poems within the section via the sidebar to the right.

The Field of Honour
by Charles Scott-Moncrieff

Mud-stained and rain-sodden, a sport for flies and lice,
Out of this vilest life into vile death he goes;
His grave will soon be ready, where the grey rat knows
There is fresh meat slain for her;- our mortal bodies rise,
In those foul scampering bellies, quick-and yet, those eyes
That stare on life still out of death, and will not close,
Seeing in a flash the Crown of Honour, and the Rose
Of Glory wreathed about the Cross of Sacrifice,

Died radiant. May some English traveller to-day
Leaving his city cares behind him, journeying west
To the brief solace of a sporting holiday,
Quicken again with boyish ardour, as he sees,
For a moment, Windsor Castle towering on the crest
And Eton still enshrined among remembering trees.

A "Buck Private" was an Americanism to describe a Private without any stripes.

Original Material © Michael Duffy 2000-07, SafeSurf Rated