Alfred Edward Housman

Additional Poems. 19. The Defeated

In battles of no renown
My fellows and I fall down,
And over the dead men roar
The battles they lost before.

The thunderstruck flagstaffs fall,
The earthquake breaches the wall,
The far-felled steeples resound,
And I lie under the ground.

O soldiers, saluted afar
By them that have seen your star,
In conquest and freedom and pride
Remember your friends that died.

Amid rejoicing and song
Remember, my lads, how long,
How deep the innocent trod
The grapes of the anger of God.