For you cannot praise it with words

Compounded of lyres and swords,

But the thought of the gloom and the rain

And the ugly coated figure, standing beside a drain,

Shall eat itself into your brain:

And you will say of all heroes, “They fought like the Belgians!”

And you will say, “He wrought like a Belgian his fate out of gloom.”

And you will say, “He bought like a Belgian

His doom.”

And that shall be an honorable name;