What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,--
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
Shires  are counties in England. 
 
 Bugles are used by the armed forces to relay instructions to the soldiers. 
 England was largely a rural country and the ‘shires’ would have been a major source of recruitment.  These are  personified  as ‘sad’; they of course don’t possess human qualities of emotion. This is an example of  metonymy where the shires represent the grieving people who live there. This compressed device suggests an entire nation mourning lost sons. 
 It’s ironic, however, that the shires are described as ‘sad’, as these were the same shires where the population, the friends and neighbours of these young men, was initially swept up by patriotism and enticed them to enlist.  The grieving came later when the reality, the terrible losses, began.