Ancestors by Siegfried Sassoon
Behold these jewelled, merchant Ancestors, Foregathered in some chancellery of death; Calm, provident, discreet, they stroke their beards And move their faces slowly in the gloom, And barter monstrous wealth with speech subdued, Lustreless eyes and acquiescent lids. And oft in pauses of their conference, They listen to the measured breath of night’s Hushed sweep […]
An Old French Poet by Siegfried Sassoon
When in your sober mood my body have ye laid In sight and sound of things beloved, woodland and stream, And the green turf has hidden the poor bones ye deem No more a close companion with those rhymes we made; Then, if some bird should pipe, or breezes stir the glade, Thinking them for […]
Alone by Siegfried Sassoon
I’ve listened: and all the sounds I heard Were music,—wind, and stream, and bird. With youth who sang from hill to hill I’ve listened: my heart is hungry still. I’ve looked: the morning world was green; Bright roofs and towers of town I’ve seen; And stars, wheeling through wingless night. I’ve looked: and my soul […]
Aftermath by Siegfried Sassoon
Have you forgotten yet?… For the world’s events have rumbled on since those gagged days, Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways: And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you’re a man reprieved to go, Taking your peaceful […]
Absolution by Siegfried Sassoon
The anguish of the earth absolves our eyes Till beauty shines in all that we can see. War is our scourge; yet war has made us wise, And, fighting for our freedom, we are free. Horror of wounds and anger at the foe, And loss of things desired; all these must pass. We are the […]
A Working Party by Siegfried Sassoon
Three hours ago he blundered up the trench, Sliding and poising, groping with his boots; Sometimes he tripped and lurched against the walls With hands that pawed the sodden bags of chalk. He couldn’t see the man who walked in front; Only he heard the drum and rattle of feet Stepping along barred trench boards, […]
A Whispered Tale by Siegfried Sassoon
I’d heard fool-heroes brag of where they’d been, With stories of the glories that they’d seen. But you, good simple soldier, seasoned well In woods and posts and crater-lines of hell, Who dodge remembered ‘crumps’ with wry grimace, Endured experience in your queer, kind face, Fatigues and vigils haunting nerve-strained eyes, And both your brothers […]
A Wanderer by Siegfried Sassoon
When Watkin shifts the burden of his cares And all that irked him in his bound employ, Once more become a vagrom-hearted boy, He moves to roundelays and jocund airs; Loitering with dusty harvestmen, he shares Old ale and sunshine; or, with maids half-coy, Pays court to shadows; fools himself with joy, Shaking a leg […]
A Subaltern by Siegfried Sassoon
He turned to me with his kind, sleepy gaze And fresh face slowly brightening to the grin That sets my memory back to summer days, With twenty runs to make, and last man in. He told me he’d been having a bloody time In trenches, crouching for the crumps to burst, While squeaking rats scampered […]
A Poplar and the Moon by Siegfried Sassoon
There stood a Poplar, tall and straight; The fair, round Moon, uprisen late, Made the long shadow on the grass A ghostly bridge ’twixt heaven and me. But May, with slumbrous nights, must pass; And blustering winds will strip the tree. And I’ve no magic to express The moment of that loveliness; So from these […]
A Mystic As Soldier by Siegfried Sassoon
I lived my days apart, Dreaming fair songs for God; By the glory in my heart Covered and crowned and shod. Now God is in the strife, And I must seek Him there, Where death outnumbers life, And fury smites the air. I walk the secret way With anger in my brain. O music through […]
A Letter Home by Siegfried Sassoon
(To Robert Graves) I Here I’m sitting in the gloom Of my quiet attic room. France goes rolling all around, Fledged with forest May has crowned. And I puff my pipe, calm-hearted, Thinking how the fighting started, Wondering when we’ll ever end it, Back to hell with Kaiser sent it, Gag the noise, pack up […]
A Child’s Prayer by Siegfried Sassoon
For Morn, my dome of blue, For Meadows, green and gay, And Birds who love the twilight of the leaves, Let Jesus keep me joyful when I pray. For the big Bees that hum And hide in bells of flowers; For the winding roads that come To Evening’s holy door, May Jesus bring me grateful […]
The Huntsmen by Walter de la Mare
The Huntsmen by Walter de la Mare Three jolly gentlemen, In coats of red, Rode their horses Up to bed. Three jolly gentlemen Snored till morn, Their horses champing The golden corn. Three jolly gentlemen At break of day, Came clitter-clatter down the stairs And galloped away. ————— The End And that’s the End of […]
The Ghost by Walter de la Mare
The Ghost by Walter de la Mare Peace in thy hands, Peace in thine eyes, Peace on thy brow; Flower of a moment in the eternal hour, Peace with me now. Not a wave breaks, Not a bird calls, My heart, like a sea, Silent after a storm that hath died, Sleeps within me. All […]
Snow by Walter de la Mare
Snow by Walter de la Mare No breath of wind, No gleam of sun – Still the white snow Whirls softly down Twig and bough And blade and thorn All in an icy Quiet, forlorn. Whispering, rustling, Through the air On still and stone, Roof,; everywhere, It heaps its powdery Crystal flakes, Of every tree […]
The Mocking Fairy by Walter de la Mare
The Mocking Fairy by Walter de la Mare ‘Won’t you look out of your window, Mrs. Gill?’ Quoth the Fairy, nidding, nodding in the garden; ‘Can’t you look out of your window, Mrs. Gill?’ Quoth the Fairy, laughing softly in the garden; But the air was still, the cherry boughs were still, And the ivy-tod […]
The Keys of Morning by Walter de la Mare
The Keys of Morning by Walter de la Mare While at her bedroom window once, Learning her task for school, Little Louisa lonely sat In the morning clear and cool, She slanted her small bead-brown eyes Across the empty street, And saw Death softly watching her In the sunshine pale and sweet. His was a […]
The Fool Rings His Bells by Walter de la Mare
The Fool Rings His Bells by Walter de la Mare Come, Death, I’d have a word with thee; And thou, poor Innocency; And Love — a lad with broken wing; Apnd Pity, too; The Fool shall sing to you, As Fools will sing. Ay, music hath small sense, And a tune’s soon told, And Earth […]
Tartary by Walter de la Mare
Tartary by Walter de la Mare If I were Lord of Tartary, Myself, and me alone, My bed should be of ivory, Of beaten gold my throne; And in my court should peacocks flaunt, And in my forests tigers haunt, And in my pools great fishes slant Their fins athwart the sun. If I were […]
Sunk Lyonesse by Walter de la Mare
Sunk Lyonesse by Walter de la Mare In sea-cold Lyonesse, When the Sabbath eve shafts down On the roofs, walls, belfries Of the foundered town, The Nereids pluck their lyres Where the green translucency beats, And with motionless eyes at gaze Make ministrely in the streets. And the ocean water stirs In salt-worn casement and […]
Some One by Walter de la Mare
Some One by Walter de la Mare Some one came knocking At my wee, small door; Someone came knocking; I’m sure-sure-sure; I listened, I opened, I looked to left and right, But nought there was a stirring In the still dark night; Only the busy beetle Tap-tapping in the wall, Only from the forest The […]
Silver by Walter de la Mare
Silver by Walter de la Mare Slowly, silently, now the moon Walks the night in her silver shoon; This way, and that, she peers, and sees Silver fruit upon silver trees; One by one the casements catch Her beams beneath the silvery thatch; Couched in his kennel, like a log, With paws of silver sleeps […]
Old Susan by Walter de la Mare
Old Susan by Walter de la Mare When Susan’s work was done, she’d sit With one fat guttering candle lit, And window opened wide to win The sweet night air to enter in; There, with a thumb to keep her place She’d read, with stern and wrinkled face. Her mild eyes gliding very slow Across […]
Off the Ground by Walter de la Mare
Off the Ground by Walter de la Mare Three jolly Farmers Once bet a pound Each dance the others would Off the ground. Out of their coats They slipped right soon, And neat and nicesome Put each his shoon. One–Two–Three! And away they go, Not too fast, And not too slow; Out from the elm-tree’s […]
November by Walter de la Mare
November by Walter de la Mare There is wind where the rose was, Cold rain where sweet grass was, And clouds like sheep Stream o’er the steep Grey skies where the lark was. Nought warm where your hand was, Nought gold where your hair was, But phantom, forlorn, Beneath the thorn, Your ghost where your […]
Music by Walter de la Mare
Music by Walter de la Mare When music sounds, gone is the earth I know, And all her lovely things even lovelier grow; Her flowers in vision flame, her forest trees Lift burdened branches, stilled with ecstasies. When music sounds, out of the water rise Naiads whose beauty dims my waking eyes, Rapt in strange […]
Miss Loo by Walter de la Mare
Miss Loo by Walter de la Mare When thin-strewn memory I look through, I see most clearly poor Miss Loo, Her tabby cat, her cage of birds, Her nose, her hair — her muffled words, And how she’d open her green eyes, As if in some immense surprise, Whenever as we sat at tea, She […]
Melmillo by Walter de la Mare
Melmillo by Walter de la Mare Three and thirty birds there stood In an elder in a wood; Called Melmillo — flew off three, Leaving thirty in the tree; Called Melmillo — nine now gone, And the boughs held twenty-one; Called Melmillo — and eighteen Left but three to nod and preen; Called Melmillo — […]
How Sleep the Brave by Walter de la Mare
How Sleep the Brave by Walter de la Mare Nay, nay, sweet England, do not grieve! Not one of these poor men who died But did within his soul believe That death for thee was glorified. Ever they watched it hovering near That mystery ‘yond thought to plumb, Perchance sometimes in loathèd fear They heard […]
Good-bye by Walter de la Mare
Good-bye by Walter de la Mare The last of last words spoken is, Good-bye – The last dismantled flower in the weed-grown hedge, The last thin rumour of a feeble bell far ringing, The last blind rat to spurn the mildewed rye. A hardening darkness glasses the haunted eye, Shines into nothing the watcher’s burnt-out […]
Full Moon by Walter de la Mare
Full Moon by Walter de la Mare One night as Dick lay half asleep, Into his drowsy eyes A great still light began to creep From out the silent skies. It was the lovely moon’s, for when He raised his dreamy head, Her surge of silver filled the pane And streamed across his bed. So, […]
Fare Well by Walter de la Mare
Fare Well by Walter de la Mare When I lie where shades of darkness Shall no more assail mine eyes, Nor the rain make lamentation When the wind sighs; How will fare the world whose wonder Was the very proof of me? Memory fades, must the remembered Perishing be? Oh, when this my dust surrenders […]
Bones by Walter de la Mare
Bones by Walter de la Mare Said Mr. Smith, “I really cannot Tell you, Dr. Jones— The most peculiar pain I’m in— I think it’s in my bones.” Said Dr. Jones, “Oh, Mr. Smith, That’s nothing. Without doubt We have a simple cure for that; It is to take them out.” He laid forthwith poor […]
At Ease by Walter de la Mare
At Ease by Walter de la Mare Most wounds can Time repair; But some are mortal — these: For a broken heart there is no balm, No cure for a heart at ease — At ease, but cold as stone, Though the intellect spin on, And the feat and practiced face may show Nought of […]
Alone by Walter de la Mare
Alone by Walter de la Mare The abode of the nightingale is bare, Flowered frost congeals in the gelid air, The fox howls from his frozen lair: Alas, my loved one is gone, I am alone: It is winter. Once the pink cast a winy smell, The wild bee hung in the hyacinth bell, Light […]
All That’s Past by Walter de la Mare
All That’s Past by Walter de la Mare Very old are the woods; And the buds that break Out of the brier’s boughs, When March winds wake, So old with their beauty are– Oh, no man knows Through what wild centuries Roves back the rose. Very old are the brooks; And the rills that rise […]
Alexander by Walter de la Mare
Alexander by Walter de la Mare It was the Great Alexander, Capped with a golden helm, Sate in the ages, in his floating ship, In a dead calm. Voices of sea-maids singing Wandered across the deep: The sailors labouring on their oars Rowed as in sleep. All the high pomp of Asia, Charmed by that […]
A Song of Enchantment by Walter de la Mare
A Song of Enchantment by Walter de la Mare A song of Enchantment I sang me there, In a green-green wood, by waters fair, Just as the words came up to me I sang it under the wild wood tree. Widdershins turned I, singing it low, Watching the wild birds come and go; No cloud […]
Nicholas Nye by Walter de la Mare
Nicholas Nye by Walter de la Mare Thistle and darnell and dock grew there, And a bush, in the corner, of may, On the orchard wall I used to sprawl In the blazing heat of the day; Half asleep and half awake, While the birds went twittering by, And nobody there my lone to share […]