Armistice

[caddyman]

Anthem for Doomed Youth

What passing bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Wilfred Owen
18 March 1893 - 4 November 1918

Today is the first Remembrance Day on which there will be no First World War veterans at the Cenotaph for the commemoration parade. The last three of them died this year, each a super-centarian beating the odds of both time and the trenches.

There will be a special service at Westminster Abbey to mark the occasion.