Video:
Text:
Trudging by
Corbie Ridge one winter's night,
(Unless old hearsay memories tricked his sight)
Along the pallid edge of the quiet sky
He watched a nosing lorry grinding on,
And straggling files of men; when these were gone,
A double limber and six mules went by,
Hauling the rations up through ruts and mud
To trench-lines digged two hundred years ago.
Then darkness hid them with a rainy scud,
And soon he saw the village lights below.
But when he'd told his tale, an old man said
That he'd seen soldiers pass along that hill;
'Poor silent things, they were the English dead
Who came to fight in France and got their fill.'
Meaning:
Trudging: walk slowly and with heavy steps, typically because of exhaustion
or harsh conditions.
Pallid: (of a person's face) pale,
typically because of poor health.
Grinding: (of a difficult situation)
oppressive and seemingly without end.
Straggling: (of an irregular group of people)
move along slowly so as to remain some distance behind the person or people in
front.
Limber: (of a person or body part)
lithe or supple.
Mule: A mule is the offspring of a male donkey
Scud: move fast in a straight line because or as if driven by the wind.
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