Under 'military history' I found a tome of irony A text once penned in heat of passion Of hope and war and lover's ration No embossed title, No woven spine But still an epic, still so fine While men lay squalid in their trenches Someone perched upon these benches A happy author with pocket knife Whose words outlived his cut down life Two fleeted lovers in this place Recorded war's old tragic face And carved there by 'The First World War' 'John loves Mary 1944.'