Here dead we lie
 Because we did not choose
 To live and shame the land
 From which we sprung.

 Life, to be sure,
 Is nothing much to lose,
 But young men think it is,
 And we were young.

Continuing with Vikram Doctor’s guest theme:

The second is a well known one by A.E.Housman, but its not yet featured on minstrels. I guess its Flecker’s line “I was a poet, I was young” which makes me think about it, since it also deals with young mens’ dreams. It is in its low key way quite an extraordinary poem, for the punch it packs, simulatenously compassionate, commemorative, patriotic and yet with such sad and bitter knowledge at the end.

— Vikram

Martin adds

The second verse of this poem is one that has haunted me ever since I first read it. Housman’s ironic “Life to be sure is nothing much to lose” recalls Wilfred Owen’s quoting of “the old lie, ‘Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori’”, and to my mind, the quiet “but young men think it is, and we were young” is an even more effective depiction of the pity of war than Owen’s graphically detailed horrors. Housman’s narrator says, in effect “yes, we fought and we died, but know that we did so in full awareness of the price we were paying.”

— Martin