1. The Iron Youth
Paired with James Blunt’s “No Bravery”

2. “Won’t you join up Comrades?”
These teachers always carry their feelings ready in their waistcoat pockets,
and
trot
them
out
by the hour
“Won’t you join up Comrades?”

3. No one had the
Vaguest
Idea what we were in for.
We had to recognize that
our
generation was more to be trusted than
theirs

4. We are none of us more than twenty years old…
…And we saw that there was nothing of their world left

5. We are the Iron Youth.

6. The war has us
for
everything
RUINED

7. I believe we are lost We are forlorn like children
And experienced like old men
I believe we are lost

8. We are not youth any longer
To play cards
To swear
And to Fight
Not much for twenty years;
And yet
Too much for twenty years

9. We believe in war
Our humor becomes more bitter each month.
Soldier with the big boots
and shut heart
And if anyone were to caress him he would hardly understand…

10. You are lost I am little more than a child. You are home, You are home
But a sense of strangeness will not leave me.
I am a soldier
I am little more than a child.
The thought leaps up with a terrible throttling fear;
You are lost

11. Yet I know nothing of life but:
I am young
I am twenty years old,
Yet I know nothing of life but:
Despair
Death
Fear
And fatuous superficiality

12. - Out of twenty, seven are dead four wounded one in a mad house Eight
_________________
Eight

13. WE ARE THE IRON YOUTH We are lost. Youth?… We are old folk
That was long ago.
We are old folk
We are lost.