My wound was slight, And I was hobbling back; and then a shell Burst slick upon the duckboards: so I fell Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light.
At sermon-time, while Squire is in his pew, He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare; For, though low down upon the list, I'm there; 'In proud and glorious memory'.
The soldier finds that his name on a memorial is the only thing he has to show for his life, and feels that the Squire, looking on from his pew in the church, cannot imagine the suffering of the men he sent to the Front.
After describing his own sordid death and the inadequacy of the memorial, the narrator asks: "What greater glory could a man desire?"
"Memorial Tablet" was used as the title of a CD released in 2003, containing readings by Sassoon and other war poets, and music by Edward Elgar.