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"But the past is just the same,—and War's a bloody game. . . .
Have you forgotten yet? . . .
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never
forget."
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), British poet. Aftermath (l. 7-9). . .
Modern British Poetry. Louis Untermeyer, ed. (7th rev. ed., 1962) Harcourt, Brace and Company. |
"Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads, those ashen-gray
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?"
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), British poet. Aftermath (l. l9-21). . .
Modern British Poetry. Louis Untermeyer, ed. (7th rev. ed., 1962) Harcourt, Brace and Company. |
"And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
I'd toddle safely home and die—in bed."
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), British poet. Base Details (l. 9-10). . .
Oxford Book of Short Poems, The. P. J. Kavanagh and James Michie, eds. Oxford University Press. |
"If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,
I'd live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death,"
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), British poet. Base Details (l. 1-3). . .
Oxford Book of Short Poems, The. P. J. Kavanagh and James Michie, eds. Oxford University Press. |
"And there'd be no more jokes in Music-halls
To mock the riddled corpses round Bapaume."
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), British poet. Blighters (l. 7-8). . .
Oxford Book of Short Poems, The. P. J. Kavanagh and James Michie, eds. Oxford University Press. |
"Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land,
Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows."
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), British poet. Dreamers (l. 1-2). . .
Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"mocked by hopeless longing to regain
Bank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats,
And going to the office in the train."
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), British poet. Dreamers (l. 12-14). . .
Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land.
...
Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win
Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives.
Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin
They think of firelit homes, clean beds and wives."
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), British poet. "Dreamers," st. 1, Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918). |
"O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be
done."
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), British poet. Everyone Sang (l. 9-10). . .
Oxford Book of Short Poems, The. P. J. Kavanagh and James Michie, eds. Oxford University Press. |
""Their name liveth for ever," the Gateway claims.
Was ever an immolation so belied
As these intolerably nameless names?
Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime
Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime."
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), British poet. On Passing the New Menin Gate (l. 11-15). . .
Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company. |
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Siegfried Sassoon
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