“Anthem for a Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?—
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
(Owen died 4 November 1918, helping bridge the Sambre-Oise Canal in France.)
From the Treaty of Versailles
Ratified 28 June 1919
Prisoners of War and Graves
PART VI: SECTION II
GRAVES
Article 225
The Allied and Associated Governments and the German Government will cause to be respected and maintained the graves of the soldiers and sailors buried in their respective territories.
They agree to recognise any Commission appointed by an Allied or Associated Government for the purpose of identifying, registering, caring for or erecting suitable memorials over the said graves and to facilitate the discharge of its duties.
Furthermore they agree to afford, so far as the provisions of their laws and the requirements of public health allow, every facility for giving effect to requests that the bodies of their soldiers and sailors may be transferred to their own country.
Article 226
The graves of prisoners of war and interned civilians who are nationals of the different belligerent States and have died in captivity shall be properly maintained in accordance with Article 225 of the present Treaty.
The Allied and Associated Governments on the one part and the German Government on the other part reciprocally undertake also to furnish to each other:
(1) A complete list of those who have died, together with all information useful for identification;
(2) All information as to the number and position of the graves of all those who have been buried without identification.
. . .
Done at Versailles, the twenty-eighth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and nineteen, in a single copy which will remain deposited in the archives of the French Republic, and of which authenticated copies will be transmitted to each of the Signatory Powers.
Photography: (top) Wilfred Owen's draft of “Anthem for a Doomed Youth”; (bottom) signing of the treaty in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, 28 June 1919
