UNSEEN POETRY AND PROSE Read the poem and answer the question Bent-double, like old beggars...

UNSEEN POETRY AND PROSE

Read the poem and answer the question

Bent-double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we curse throughsludge

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge,

Men marched asleep, many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shed. All went lame, all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; even deaf to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softy behind.

Sludge in the extract means