We are going back again
To the mud and the rain
Where the guns complain (personification)
And the stones stain.




We are leaving the mountain snow.
Once more it is our turn to go
Back to the advanced foe.
It is just we know . . .




We are going back again
To our comrades' graves on the plain,
To the graves sunk in the rain
We do not complain.




We say nothing: but think only
(Heart-constricted, a moment lonely):
"Who will be killed this time
And for what crime?" (endrhyme)




-John Gawsworth

This poem is talking about soilders in fighting in a war, most likely World War 2 and how much they hate it. it is specifically talking about soilders who are returining to the fight after they were on R & R (rest and relaxation), or even veteran soildres who were coming back from a diffrent war who were dreading the fighting and the bloodshed. it states at the end that the soilders are wonderign who will die in this battle, and who will they die, which is a very real and present thought in soilders when they go off to war. the underlying theme in this poem is that no matter how much they dread and hate war, thatr they will always return because they are ordered to, or feel as though it is their duty.