Section: «Poems»

Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings: artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.); a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").

The Road

The road is thronged with women; soldiers passAnd halt, but never see them; yet they’re here—A patient crowd along the sodden grass,Silent, worn out..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Wonderment

Then a wind blew;And he who had forgot he movedLonely amid the green and silver morning weather,Suddenly grewAware of clouds and treesGleaming and..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Tree And Sky

Let my soul, a shining tree,Silver branches lift towards thee,Where on a hallowed winter’s nightThe clear-eyed angels may alight.And if there should..

© Siegfried Sassoon

To A Very Wise Man

IFires in the dark you build; tall quivering flamesIn the huge midnight forest of the unknown.Your soul is full of cities with dead names,And..

© Siegfried Sassoon

The Choral Union

He staggered in from night and frost and fogAnd lampless streets: he’d guzzled like a hogAnd drunk till he was dazed. And now he cameTo hear—he..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Nimrod In September

When half the drowsy world’s a-bedAnd misty morning rises red,With jollity of horn and lusty cheer,Young Nimrod urges on his dwindling rout;Along the..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Song-Books Of The War

In fifty years, when peace outshinesRemembrance of the battle lines,Adventurous lads will sigh and castProud looks upon the plundered past.On summer..

© Siegfried Sassoon

The Hero

'Jack fell as he'd have wished,' the mother said,And folded up the letter that she'd read.'The Colonel writes so nicely.' Something brokeIn the tired..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Night On The Convoy

(ALEXANDRIA-MARSEILLES)Out in the blustering darkness, on the deckA gleam of stars looks down. Long blurs of black,The lean Destroyers, level with..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Dryads

When meadows are grey with the mornIn the dusk of the woods it is night:The oak and the birch and the pineWar with the glimmer of light.Dryads brown..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Slumber-Song

Sleep; and my song shall build about your bedA paradise of dimness. You shall feelThe folding of tired wings; and peace will dwellThroned in your..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Their Frailty

He's got a Blighty wound. He’s safe; and thenWar’s fine and bold and bright.She can forget the doomed and prisoned menWho agonize and fight.He’s back..

© Siegfried Sassoon

The Tombstone-Maker

He primmed his loose red mouth and leaned his headAgainst a sorrowing angel’s breast, and said:‘You’d think so much bereavement would have..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Stand-To: Good Friday Morning

I’d been on duty from two till four.I went and stared at the dug-out door.Down in the frowst I heard them snore.‘Stand to!’ Somebody grunted and..

© Siegfried Sassoon

To Victory

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 streamingBanners of dawn..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Wisdom

When Wisdom tells me that the world’s a speckLost on the shoreless blue of God’s To-Day...I smile, and think, ‘For every man his way:The world’s my..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Idyll

In the grey summer garden I shall find youWith day-break and the morning hills behind you.There will be rain-wet roses; stir of wings;And down the..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Morning Express

Along the wind-swept platform, pinched and white,The travellers stand in pools of wintry light,Offering themselves to morn’s long, slanting..

© Siegfried Sassoon

The Fathers

Snug at the club two fathers sat,Gross, goggle-eyed, and full of chat.One of them said: ‘My eldest ladWrites cheery letters from Bagdad.But Arthur’s..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Vision

I love all things that pass: their briefness isMusic that fades on transient silences.Winds, birds, and glittering leaves that flare and fall—They..

© Siegfried Sassoon

The Dark House

Dusk in the rain-soaked garden,And dark the house within.A door creaked: someone was earlyTo watch the dawn begin.But he stole away like a thiefIn..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Miracles

I dreamt I saw a huge grey boat in silence steamingDown a canal; it drew the dizzy landscape after;The solemn world was sucked along with it—a..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Middle-Ages

I heard a clash, and a cry,And a horseman fleeing the wood.The moon hid in a cloud.Deep in shadow I stood.‘Ugly work!’ thought I,Holding my..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Before Day

Come in this hour to set my spirit freeWhen earth is no more mine though night goes out,And stretching forth these arms I cannot beLord of winged..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Night-Piece

Ye hooded witches, baleful shapes that moan,Quench your fantastic lanterns and be still;For now the moon through heaven sails alone,Shedding her..

© Siegfried Sassoon