Escape by Robert Graves — Read

(_August_ 6, 1916. -- Officer previously reported died of / wounds, now reported wounded: Graves, Captain R., / Royal Welch Fusiliers.)

. But I _was_ dead, an hour or more. / I woke when I'd already passed the door / That Cerberus guards, and half-way down the road / To Lethe, as an old Greek signpost showed. / Above me, on my stretcher swinging by, / I saw new stars in the subterrene sky: / A Cross, a Rose in bloom, a Cage with bars, / And a barbed Arrow feathered in fine stars. / I felt the vapours of forgetfulness / Float in my nostrils. Oh, may Heaven bless / Dear Lady Proserpine, who saw me wake, / And, stooping over me, for Henna's sake / Cleared my poor buzzing head and sent me back / Breathless, with leaping heart along the track. / After me roared and clattered angry hosts / Of demons, heroes, and policeman-ghosts. / "Life! life! I can't be dead! I won't be dead! / Damned if I'll die for any one! " I said. / Cerberus stands and grins above me now, / Wearing three heads -- lion, and lynx, and sow.