Suicide in the Trenches

I knew a simple soldier boy

Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know

The hell where youth and laughter go.

1. It’s about this soldier boy trapped in a trench because he’s sad and all alone, daydreaming in depression. In the end, he shoots himself. The crowd didn’t know about the boy, they were cheering when the soldiers came home but the crowd doesn’t know that the people who died weren’t acknowledged. They also didn’t know that the war with all its glory, has more than one side.

2. It’s secretive, there’s more than meets the eye. People cheer and are happy, but behind it, the soldiers are actually lonely and forced to do it because it is their duty.