Remembered, one and honoured all.

Houseman's most famous piece "Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries' was technically referring to the tiny professional British Expeditionary Force, the ‘Old Contemptibles’ although it was only published in the Times in 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres, ‘Passchendaele'. However, it is much misunderstood and I prefer to contribute:


Peace is come and wars are over,
Welcome you and welcome all,
While the charger crops the clover
And his bridle hangs in stall.

Now no more of winters biting
Filth in trench from fall to spring,
Summers full of sweat and fighting
For the Kesar or the King.

Rest you, charger, rust you, bridle;
Kings and Kesars, keep your pay;
Soldier, sit you down and idle
At the inn of night for aye.

A.E. Houseman, Last Poems: VIII (published in 1922)