{"id":495,"date":"2014-07-03T22:34:51","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T22:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/?post_type=chapter&p=495"},"modified":"2014-09-29T04:05:03","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T04:05:03","slug":"the-sentry","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/chapter\/the-sentry\/","title":{"raw":"The Sentry","rendered":"The Sentry"},"content":{"raw":"We'd found an old Boche[footnote]Disparaging term for a German, especially a German soldier.[\/footnote]\u00a0dug-out, and he knew,\r\nAnd gave us hell, for shell on frantic shell\r\nHammered on top, but never quite burst through.\r\nRain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime\r\nKept slush waist high, that rising hour by hour,\r\nChoked up the steps too thick with clay to climb.\r\nWhat murk of air remained stank old, and sour\r\nWith fumes of whizz-bangs[footnote]A small-calibre World War I shell that, when discharged, travelled at such a high velocity that the sound of its flight was heard only an instant, if at all, before the sound of its explosion.[\/footnote], and the smell of men\r\nWho'd lived there years, and left their curse in the den,\r\nIf not their corpses. . . .\r\nThere we herded from the blast\r\nOf whizz-bangs, but one found our door at last.\r\nBuffeting eyes and breath, snuffing the candles.\r\nAnd thud! flump! thud! down the steep steps came thumping\r\nAnd splashing in the flood, deluging muck\u2014\r\nThe sentry's body; then his rifle, handles\r\nOf old Boche bombs, and mud in ruck on ruck.\r\nWe dredged him up, for killed, until he whined\r\n\"O sir, my eyes\u2014I'm blind\u2014I'm blind, I'm blind!\"\r\nCoaxing, I held a flame against his lids\r\nAnd said if he could see the least blurred light\r\nHe was not blind; in time he'd get all right.\r\n\"I can't,\" he sobbed. Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids\r\nWatch my dreams still; but I forgot him there\r\nIn posting next for duty, and sending a scout\r\nTo beg a stretcher somewhere, and floundering about\r\nTo other posts under the shrieking air.\r\n\r\nThose other wretches, how they bled and spewed,\r\nAnd one who would have drowned himself for good,\u2014\r\nI try not to remember these things now.\r\nLet dread hark back for one word only: how\r\nHalf-listening to that sentry's moans and jumps,\r\nAnd the wild chattering of his broken teeth,\r\nRenewed most horribly whenever crumps[footnote]A shell or bomb.[\/footnote]\r\nPummelled the roof and slogged the air beneath\u2014\r\nThrough the dense din, I say, we heard him shout\r\n\"I see your lights!\" But ours had long died out.","rendered":"

We’d found an old Boche[1]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0dug-out, and he knew,
\nAnd gave us hell, for shell on frantic shell
\nHammered on top, but never quite burst through.
\nRain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime
\nKept slush waist high, that rising hour by hour,
\nChoked up the steps too thick with clay to climb.
\nWhat murk of air remained stank old, and sour
\nWith fumes of whizz-bangs[2]<\/sup><\/a>, and the smell of men
\nWho’d lived there years, and left their curse in the den,
\nIf not their corpses. . . .
\nThere we herded from the blast
\nOf whizz-bangs, but one found our door at last.
\nBuffeting eyes and breath, snuffing the candles.
\nAnd thud! flump! thud! down the steep steps came thumping
\nAnd splashing in the flood, deluging muck\u2014
\nThe sentry’s body; then his rifle, handles
\nOf old Boche bombs, and mud in ruck on ruck.
\nWe dredged him up, for killed, until he whined
\n“O sir, my eyes\u2014I’m blind\u2014I’m blind, I’m blind!”
\nCoaxing, I held a flame against his lids
\nAnd said if he could see the least blurred light
\nHe was not blind; in time he’d get all right.
\n“I can’t,” he sobbed. Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids
\nWatch my dreams still; but I forgot him there
\nIn posting next for duty, and sending a scout
\nTo beg a stretcher somewhere, and floundering about
\nTo other posts under the shrieking air.<\/p>\n

Those other wretches, how they bled and spewed,
\nAnd one who would have drowned himself for good,\u2014
\nI try not to remember these things now.
\nLet dread hark back for one word only: how
\nHalf-listening to that sentry’s moans and jumps,
\nAnd the wild chattering of his broken teeth,
\nRenewed most horribly whenever crumps[3]<\/sup><\/a>
\nPummelled the roof and slogged the air beneath\u2014
\nThrough the dense din, I say, we heard him shout
\n“I see your lights!” But ours had long died out.<\/p>\n

  1. Disparaging term for a German, especially a German soldier. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  2. A small-calibre World War I shell that, when discharged, travelled at such a high velocity that the sound of its flight was heard only an instant, if at all, before the sound of its explosion. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  3. A shell or bomb. ↵<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"menu_order":9,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["wilfred-owen"],"pb_section_license":"public-domain"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[67],"license":[78],"class_list":["post-495","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-wilfred-owen","license-public-domain"],"part":479,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1521,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/495\/revisions\/1521"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/479"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/495\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=495"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=495"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}