What Profiteth? [poem, 18 January 1918]

[Editor: A poem, possibly written by C.E.W. Bean (Australian war correspondent and historian). Published in Aussie: The Australian Soldiers’ Magazine, no. 1, 18 January 1918.]

What Profiteth?

The last long gun has spoken,
The echoes die.
The last sad trees stand broken
On the yellow sky.

The last slow file is wending
Away to the West.
What gain from the long day’s ending?
THEY GAVE THEIR BEST.

C.E.W.B.

Source:
Aussie: The Australian Soldiers’ Magazine, no. 1, 18 January 1918, page 12