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 Death-Bed
He drowsed and was aware of silence heapedRound him, unshaken as the steadfast walls;Aqueous like floating rays of amber light,Soaring and quivering..
© Siegfried Sassoon
A Poplar And The Moon
There stood a Poplar, tall and straight;The fair, round Moon, uprisen late,Made the long shadow on the grassA ghostly bridge ’twixt heaven and me.But..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Autumn
October's bellowing anger breaks and cleavesThe bronzed battalions of the stricken woodIn whose lament I hear a voice that grievesFor battle’s..
© Siegfried Sassoon
The Dug-Out
Why do you lie with your legs ungainly huddled,And one arm bent across your sullen, cold,Exhausted face? It hurts my heart to watch you,Deep-shadowed..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Banishment
I am banished from the patient men who fightThey smote my heart to pity, built my pride.Shoulder to aching shoulder, side by side,They trudged away..
© Siegfried Sassoon
A Working Party
Three hours ago he blundered up the trench,Sliding and poising, groping with his boots;Sometimes he tripped and lurched against the wallsWith hands..
© Siegfried Sassoon
A Subaltern
He turned to me with his kind, sleepy gazeAnd fresh face slowly brightening to the grinThat sets my memory back to summer days,With twenty runs to..
© Siegfried Sassoon
The General
‘Good-morning; good-morning!’ the General saidWhen we met him last week on our way to the line.Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ’em dead,And..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Everyone Sang
Everyone suddenly burst out singing;And I was filled with such delightAs prisoned birds must find in freedom,Winging wildly across the whiteOrchards..
© Siegfried Sassoon
'They'
The Bishop tells us: 'When the boys come back'They will not be the same; for they'll have fought'In a just cause: they lead the last attack'On..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Died Of Wounds
His wet white face and miserable eyesBrought nurses to him more than groans and sighs:But hoarse and low and rapid rose and fellHis troubled voice:..
© Siegfried Sassoon
A Whispered Tale
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 wellIn woods and..
© Siegfried Sassoon
“the Rank Stench Of Those Bodies Haunts Me Still”
The rank stench of those bodies haunts me stillAnd I remember things I'd best forget.For now we've marched to a green, trenchless landTwelve miles..
© Siegfried Sassoon
A Child's Prayer
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..
© Siegfried Sassoon
How To Die
Dark clouds are smouldering into redWhile down the craters morning burns.The dying soldier shifts his headTo watch the glory that returns;He lifts..
© Siegfried Sassoon
A Wanderer
When Watkin shifts the burden of his caresAnd all that irked him in his bound employ,Once more become a vagrom-hearted boy,He moves to roundelays and..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Ancient History
Adam, a brown old vulture in the rain,Shivered below his wind-whipped olive-trees;Huddling sharp chin on scarred and scraggy knees,He moaned and..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Alone
I’ve listened: and all the sounds I heardWere music,—wind, and stream, and bird.With youth who sang from hill to hillI’ve listened: my heart is..
© Siegfried Sassoon
A Mystic As Soldier
I lived my days apart,Dreaming fair songs for God;By the glory in my heartCovered and crowned and shod.Now God is in the strife,And I must seek Him..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Base Details
If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breathI'd live with scarlet Majors at the Base,And speed glum heroes up the line to death.You'd see me with..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Attack
AT dawn the ridge emerges massed and dunIn the wild purple of the glow'ring sun,Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroudThe menacing..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Absolution
The anguish of the earth absolves our eyesTill beauty shines in all that we can see.War is our scourge; yet war has made us wise,And, fighting for..
© Siegfried Sassoon
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
A Letter Home
(To Robert Graves)IHere I'm sitting in the gloomOf my quiet attic room.France goes rolling all around,Fledged with forest May has crowned.And I puff..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Does It Matter?
Does it matter? -losing your legs?For people will always be kind,And you need not show that you mindWhen others come in after huntingTo gobble their..
© Siegfried Sassoon