I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
This shows the impact of war on a once innocent person and how one thing can change your whole life for better or for worse. The events that drove this young and once innocent man to his demise consisted of seeing his friends dead and the possibility of suffering the same fate himself. 
 
 British Vickers machine gun crew during the Battle of Menin Road Ridge, World War I (1917). 
    Image Credit
Suicide in the Trenches