Poem of the week: The German Graves: A.P. Herbert

William Robert RA Burying the Dead After a Battle (1919)

The German Graves

I wonder are there roses still

In Ablain St Nazaire,

And crosses girt with daffodil

In that old garden there.

I wonder if the long grass waves

With wild flowers just the same

Where the Germans made their soldiers' graves

Before the English came?

The English set those crosses straight

And kept the legends clean;

The English made the wicket-gate

and left the gardens green:

And now who knows what regiments dwell

In Ablain St Nazaire?

But I would have them guard as well

The graves we guarded there.

So do not tear those fences up

And drive your wagons through,

Or trample rose and buttercup

As careless feet may do;

For I have friends where Germans tread

In graves across the line,

And as I do towards their dead

So may they do to mine.

And when at last the Prussians pass 

Among those mounds and see

The reverent cornflowers crowd the grass

Because of you and me,

They'll give perhaps one humble thought

To all the 'English fools'

Who fought as never men have fought

But somehow kept the rules.

A. P. Herbert

Alan Patrick Herbert (1890-1971)

Born in Elstead, Surrey, and educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford. Enlisted in August 1914 as an Ordinary Seaman in Benbow Battalion, Royal Naval Division. Commissioned in March 1915 as a Sub Lieutenant in Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Division. Served in Gallipoli from May 1915 and awarded mention in Despatches. After garrison duty at Imbros January -May 1916, sent to France with Division. Wounded at Gavrelle in April 1917 and invalided home. Promoted to Lieutenant in September 1917 and subsequently served on staff of HMS President. After the war worked for Punch from 1924 and wrote many books and plays. Became Independent MP for Oxford University 1935-50 and Knighted in 1945. During Second World War served with River Emergency Service on Thames from September 1939 and as a Petty Officer in Naval Auxiliary Patrol from June 1940. First World War experiences covered in the novel The Secret Battle (1919) and autobiography A.P.H. His Life and Times (1970). War Poems appear in Half-hours at Helles (1916) and Bomber Gypsy, and Other Poems (1918).

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