Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp
Stood staring hard,
Sorry to miss them from the upland camp.
Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp
Winked to the guard.
So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went.
They were not ours:
We never heard to which front these were sent.
Nor there if they yet mock what women meant
Who gave them flowers.
Shall they return to beatings of great bells
In wild trainloads?
A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,
May creep back, silent, to still village wells,
Up half-known roads.
The repetition of ‘few’ here emphasises how small the returning contingent is. 
 The author contrasts the expectations of the people and the real events. The words ‘great bells’, ‘wild’, ‘drums’ and ‘yells’ are transformed to a funeral toll. 
 The negativity of ‘creep back’, ‘silent’ and ‘still’  conveys a feeling of sadness, dullness and pity.