Well, the mystery is solved, and the fault is mine. It's all right here, in black and white.

See, here's the story: I couldn't figure out where Reed had written the line 'To fight without hope is to fight without grace.' The quote opens the chapter "Where Are the War Poets?" in Shires' British Poetry of the Second World War.

I did find, however, a similar line in the poem, "To a Conscript of 1940": 'To fight without hope is to fight with grace.'

Going back to my original photocopy this evening, I realized I had copied the quote incorrectly, inserting the second without. By doing so, I fell victim to one of the classic blunders.

I mistook Herbert Read for Henry Reed. God help me.

The correct quote is 'To fight without hope is to fight with grace.' Shires misattributed it to Reed; I failed to copy it correctly; and now I have sorely embarrassed myself by not recognizing the compounding error, despite having the source material in front of me! For shame!