Thomas Hardy - At the War Office, London (Affixing the Lists of k**ed and Wounded: December, 1899) lyrics

I Last year I called this world of gain-givings The darkest thinkable, and questioned sadly If my own land could heave its pulse less gladly, So charged it seemed with circumstance whence springs The tragedy of things. II Yet at that censured time no heart was rent Or feature blanched of parent, wife, or daughter By hourly blazoned sheets of listed slaughter; d**h waited Nature's won't; Peace smiled unshent From Ind to Occident.