August 1914

By Isaac Rosenberg

What in our lives is burnt

In the fire of this?

The heart’s dear granary?

The much we shall miss?

Three lives hath one life –

Iron, honey, gold.

The gold, the honey gone –

Left is the hard and cold.

Iron are our lives

Molten right through our youth.

A burnt space through ripe fields

A fair mouth’s broken tooth