"Two Hundred Years After," Siegfried Sassoon

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Two Hundred Years After

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...