Sporting Acquaintances by Siegfried Sassoon
I watched old squatting Chimpanzee: he traced His painful patterns in the dirt: I saw Red-haired Ourang-utang, whimsical-faced, Chewing a sportsman’s meditative straw: I’d met them years ago, and half-forgotten They’d come to grief (but how, I’d never heard, Poor beggars!); still, it seemed so rude and rotten To stand and gape at them with […]
The Road To Ruin by Siegfried Sassoon
My hopes, my messengers I sent Across the ten years continent Of Time. In dream I saw them go– And thought, ‘When they come back I’ll show To what far place I lead my friends Where this disastrous decade ends.’ Like one in purgatory, I learned The loss of hope. For none returned, And long […]
Solar Eclipse by Siegfried Sassoon
Observe these blue solemnities of sky Offering for the academes of after-ages A mythologic welkin freaked with white! Listen : one tiny tinkling rivulet Accentuates the super-sultry stillness That drones on ripening landscapes which imply Serene Parnassus plagued with amorous goats. * * * * Far down the vale Apollo has pursued The noon-bedazzled nymph […]
Return Of The Heroes by Siegfried Sassoon
A lady watches from the crowd, Enthusiastic, flushed, and proud._ “Oh! there’s Sir Henry Dudster! Such a splendid leader! How pleased he looks! What rows of ribbons on his tunic! Such dignity…. Saluting…. (Wave your flag… now, Freda!)… Yes, dear, I saw a Prussian General once,-at Munich. “Here’s the next carriage!… Jack was once in […]
Return Of The Heroes by Siegfried Sassoon
A lady watches from the crowd, Enthusiastic, flushed, and proud._ “Oh! there’s Sir Henry Dudster! Such a splendid leader! How pleased he looks! What rows of ribbons on his tunic! Such dignity…. Saluting…. (Wave your flag… now, Freda!)… Yes, dear, I saw a Prussian General once,-at Munich. “Here’s the next carriage!… Jack was once in […]
Prelude: The Troops by Siegfried Sassoon
Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloom Shudders to drizzling daybreak that reveals Disconsolate men who stamp their sodden boots And turn dulled, sunken faces to the sky Haggard and hopeless. They, who have beaten down The stale despair of night, must now renew Their desolation in the truce of dawn, Murdering the livid hours […]
The Road To Ruin by Siegfried Sassoon
My hopes, my messengers I sent Across the ten years continent Of Time. In dream I saw them go– And thought, ‘When they come back I’ll show To what far place I lead my friends Where this disastrous decade ends.’ Like one in purgatory, I learned The loss of hope. For none returned, And long […]
On Passing The New Menin Gate by Siegfried Sassoon
Who will remember, passing through this Gate, the unheroic dead who fed the guns? Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate,- Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones? Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own. Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp; Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone, The armies who endured that sullen […]
Return Of The Heroes by Siegfried Sassoon
A lady watches from the crowd, Enthusiastic, flushed, and proud._ “Oh! there’s Sir Henry Dudster! Such a splendid leader! How pleased he looks! What rows of ribbons on his tunic! Such dignity…. Saluting…. (Wave your flag… now, Freda!)… Yes, dear, I saw a Prussian General once,-at Munich. “Here’s the next carriage!… Jack was once in […]
In An Underground Dressing Station by Siegfried Sassoon
Quietly they set their burden down: he tried To grin; moaned; moved his head from side to side. He gripped the stretcher; stiffened; glared; and screamed, “O put my leg down, doctor, do!” (He’d got A bullet in his ankle; and he’d been shot Horribly through the guts.) The surgeon seemed So kind and gentle, […]
Return Of The Heroes by Siegfried Sassoon
A lady watches from the crowd, Enthusiastic, flushed, and proud._ “Oh! there’s Sir Henry Dudster! Such a splendid leader! How pleased he looks! What rows of ribbons on his tunic! Such dignity…. Saluting…. (Wave your flag… now, Freda!)… Yes, dear, I saw a Prussian General once,-at Munich. “Here’s the next carriage!… Jack was once in […]
Grandeur Of Ghosts by Siegfried Sassoon
When I have heard small talk about great men I climb to bed; light my two candles; then Consider what was said; and put aside What Such-a-one remarked and Someone-else replied. They have spoken lightly of my deathless friends, (Lamps for my gloom, hands guiding where I stumble,) Quoting, for shallow conversational ends, What Shelley […]
Prelude: The Troops by Siegfried Sassoon
Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloom Shudders to drizzling daybreak that reveals Disconsolate men who stamp their sodden boots And turn dulled, sunken faces to the sky Haggard and hopeless. They, who have beaten down The stale despair of night, must now renew Their desolation in the truce of dawn, Murdering the livid hours […]
On Passing The New Menin Gate by Siegfried Sassoon
Who will remember, passing through this Gate, the unheroic dead who fed the guns? Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate,- Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones? Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own. Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp; Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone, The armies who endured that sullen […]
In An Underground Dressing Station by Siegfried Sassoon
Quietly they set their burden down: he tried To grin; moaned; moved his head from side to side. He gripped the stretcher; stiffened; glared; and screamed, “O put my leg down, doctor, do!” (He’d got A bullet in his ankle; and he’d been shot Horribly through the guts.) The surgeon seemed So kind and gentle, […]
Grandeur Of Ghosts by Siegfried Sassoon
When I have heard small talk about great men I climb to bed; light my two candles; then Consider what was said; and put aside What Such-a-one remarked and Someone-else replied. They have spoken lightly of my deathless friends, (Lamps for my gloom, hands guiding where I stumble,) Quoting, for shallow conversational ends, What Shelley […]
‘Blighters’ by Siegfried Sassoon
The House is crammed: tier beyond tier they grin And cackle at the Show, while prancing ranks Of harlots shrill the chorus, drunk with din; ‘We’re sure the Kaiser loves our dear old Tanks!’ I’d like to see a Tank come down the stalls, Lurching to rag-time tunes, or ‘Home, sweet Home’, And there’d be […]
At The Cenotaph by Siegfried Sassoon
I saw the Prince of Darkness, with his Staff, Standing bare-headed by the Cenotaph: Unostentatious and respectful, there He stood, and offered up the following prayer. ‘Make them forget, O Lord, what this Memorial Means; their discredited ideas revive; Breed new belief that War is purgatorial Proof of the pride and power of being alive; […]
Wraiths by Siegfried Sassoon
They know not the green leaves; In whose earth-haunting dream Dimly the forest heaves, And voiceless goes the stream. Strangely they seek a place In love’s night-memoried hall; Peering from face to face, Until some heart shall call And keep them, for a breath, Half-mortal … (Hark to the rain!)… They are dead … (O […]
Wraiths by Siegfried Sassoon
They know not the green leaves; In whose earth-haunting dream Dimly the forest heaves, And voiceless goes the stream. Strangely they seek a place In love’s night-memoried hall; Peering from face to face, Until some heart shall call And keep them, for a breath, Half-mortal … (Hark to the rain!)… They are dead … (O […]
Wonderment by Siegfried Sassoon
Then a wind blew; And he who had forgot he moved Lonely amid the green and silver morning weather, Suddenly grew Aware of clouds and trees Gleaming and white and shafted, shaken together And blown to music by the ruffling breeze. Like flush of wings The moment passed: he stood Dazzled with blossom in the […]
Wisdom by Siegfried Sassoon
When Wisdom tells me that the world’s a speck Lost on the shoreless blue of God’s To-Day… I smile, and think, ‘For every man his way: The world’s my ship, and I’m alone on deck!’ And when he tells me that the world’s a spark Lit in the whistling gloom of God’s To-Night… I look […]
Wirers by Siegfried Sassoon
‘Pass it along, the wiring party’s going out’— And yawning sentries mumble, ‘Wirers going out.’ Unravelling; twisting; hammering stakes with muffled thud, They toil with stealthy haste and anger in their blood. The Boche sends up a flare. Black forms stand rigid there, Stock-still like posts; then darkness, and the clumsy ghosts Stride hither and […]
Wind in the Beechwood by Siegfried Sassoon
The glorying forest shakes and swings with glancing Of boughs that dip and strain; young, slanting sprays Beckon and shift like lissom creatures dancing, While the blown beechwood streams with drifting rays. Rooted in steadfast calm, grey stems are seen Like weather-beaten masts; the wood, unfurled, Seems as a ship with crowding sails of green […]
When I’m among a Blaze of Lights by Siegfried Sassoon
When I’m among a blaze of lights, With tawdry music and cigars And women dawdling through delights, And officers in cocktail bars, Sometimes I think of garden nights And elm trees nodding at the stars. I dream of a small firelit room With yellow candles burning straight, And glowing pictures in the gloom, And kindly […]
What the Captain Said at the Point-to-Point by Siegfried Sassoon
I’ve had a good bump round; my little horse Refused the brook first time, Then jumped it prime; And ran out at the double, But of course There’s always trouble at a double: And then—I don’t know how It was—he turned it up At that big, hairy fence before the plough; And some young silly […]
Vision by Siegfried Sassoon
I love all things that pass: their briefness is Music that fades on transient silences. Winds, birds, and glittering leaves that flare and fall— They fling delight across the world; they call To rhythmic-flashing limbs that rove and race… A moment in the dawn for Youth’s lit face; A moment’s passion, closing on the cry— […]
Villon by Siegfried Sassoon
They threw me from the gates: my matted hair Was dank with dungeon wetness; my spent frame O’erlaid with marish agues: everywhere Tortured by leaping pangs of frost and flame, So hideous was I that even Lazarus there In noisome rags arrayed and leprous shame, Beside me set had seemed full sweet and fair, And […]
Two Hundred Years After by Siegfried Sassoon
Trudging by Corbie Ridge one winter’s night, (Unless old hearsay memories tricked his sight) Along the pallid edge of the quiet sky He watched a nosing lorry grinding on, And straggling files of men; when these were gone, A double limber and six mules went by, Hauling the rations up through ruts and mud To […]
Twelve Months After by Siegfried Sassoon
Hullo! here’s my platoon, the lot I had last year. ‘The war’ll be over soon.’ ‘What ’opes?’ ‘No bloody fear!’ Then, ‘Number Seven, ’shun! All present and correct.’ They’re standing in the sun, impassive and erect. Young Gibson with his grin; and Morgan, tired and white; Jordan, who’s out to win a D.C.M. some night; […]
Trench Duty by Siegfried Sassoon
Shaken from sleep, and numbed and scarce awake, Out in the trench with three hours’ watch to take, I blunder through the splashing mirk; and then Hear the gruff muttering voices of the men Crouching in cabins candle-chinked with light. Hark! There’s the big bombardment on our right Rumbling and bumping; and the dark’s a […]
Tree and Sky by Siegfried Sassoon
Let my soul, a shining tree, Silver branches lift towards thee, Where on a hallowed winter’s night The clear-eyed angels may alight. And if there should be tempests in My spirit, let them surge like din Of noble melodies at war; With fervour of such blades of triumph as are Flashed in white orisons of […]
Together by Siegfried Sassoon
Splashing along the boggy woods all day, And over brambled hedge and holding clay, I shall not think of him: But when the watery fields grow brown and dim, And hounds have lost their fox, and horses tire, I know that he’ll be with me on my way Home through the darkness to the evening […]
Today by Siegfried Sassoon
This is To-day, a child in white and blue Running to meet me out of Night who stilled The ghost of Yester-eve; this is fair Morn The mother of To-morrow. And these clouds That chase the sunshine over gleaming hills Are thoughts, delighting in the golden change And the ceremony of their drifting state. This […]
To Victory by Siegfried Sassoon
Return to greet me, colours that were my joy, Not in the woeful crimson of men slain, But shining as a garden; come with the streaming Banners of dawn and sundown after rain. I want to fill my gaze with blue and silver, Radiance through living roses, spires of green Rising in young-limbed copse and […]
To My Brother by Siegfried Sassoon
Give me your hand, my brother, search my face; Look in these eyes lest I should think of shame; For we have made an end of all things base. We are returning by the road we came. Your lot is with the ghosts of soldiers dead, And I am in the field where men must […]
To Leonide Massine in ‘Cleopatra’ by Siegfried Sassoon
O beauty doomed and perfect for an hour, Leaping along the verge of death and night, You show me dauntless Youth that went to fight Four long years past, discovering pride and power. You die but in our dreams, who watch you fall Knowing that to-morrow you will dance again. But not to ebbing music […]
To His Dead Body by Siegfried Sassoon
When roaring gloom surged inward and you cried, Groping for friendly hands, and clutched, and died, Like racing smoke, swift from your lolling head phantoms of thought and memory thinned and fled. Yet, though my dreams that throng the darkened stair Can bring me no report of how you fare, Safe quit of wars, I […]
To Any Dead Officer by Siegfried Sassoon
Well, how are things in Heaven? I wish you’d say, Because I’d like to know that you’re all right. Tell me, have you found everlasting day, Or been sucked in by everlasting night? For when I shut my eyes your face shows plain; I hear you make some cheery old remark— I can rebuild you […]
To a Very Wise Man by Siegfried Sassoon
I Fires in the dark you build; tall quivering flames In the huge midnight forest of the unknown. Your soul is full of cities with dead names, And blind-faced, earth-bound gods of bronze and stone Whose priests and kings and lust-begotten lords Watch the procession of their thundering hosts, Or guard relentless fanes with flickering […]