'But You Call This Instinct'

Tucked into a brief section at the back of The Poems of Edmund Blunden (Cobden-Sanderson, 1930) titled “Occasional Pieces” is “Under a Thousand Words,” a poem that seems at first to have little to do with Blunden’s service in the Great War. At age nineteen, Blunden was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment. He served for almost two years on the Western Front, took part in the engagements at Ypres and the Somme, and was awarded the Military Cross. “‘A thousand words on Courage.’—This request Dropped on me like a bomb on a sandbag shelter, And after much vague mental repetition Ranging from La Boisselle to Lord Macaulay, And metaphysical cross-examination On memories of conspicuous gallant conduct, I gave it up. That afternoon our boat Touched on a mud-flat, which we chose to cross. And as we waddled through it, a three-inch crab Disputed progress; one of his arms was gone; The other he held ready like a boxer. And backed and sidled to our every movement. His…

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