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").
An Old French Poet
When in your sober mood my body have ye laidIn sight and sound of things beloved, woodland and stream,And the green turf has hidden the poor bones ye..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Ancestors
Behold these jewelled, merchant Ancestors,Foregathered in some chancellery of death;Calm, provident, discreet, they stroke their beardsAnd move their..
© Siegfried Sassoon
The Kiss
To these I turn, in these I trust;Brother Lead and Sister Steel.To his blind power I make appeal;I guard her beauty clean from rust.He spins and..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Before The Battle
Music of whispering treesHushed by a broad-winged breezeWhere shaken water gleams;And evening radiance fallingWith reedy bird-notes calling.O bear me..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Bombardment
Four days the earth was rent and tornBy bursting steel,The houses fell about us;Three nights we dared not sleep,Sweating, and listening for the..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Glory Of Women
You love us when we're heroes, home on leave,Or wounded in a mentionable place.You worship decorations; you believeThat chivalry redeems the war's..
© Siegfried Sassoon
At Daybreak
I listen for him through the rain,And in the dusk of starless hoursI know that he will come again;Loth was he ever to forsake me:He comes with..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Counter-Attack
We’d gained our first objective hours beforeWhile dawn broke like a face with blinking eyes,Pallid, unshaved and thirsty, blind with smoke.Things..
© Siegfried Sassoon
Arms And The Man
Young Croesus went to pay his callOn Colonel Sawbones, Caxton Hall:And, though his wound was healed and mended,He hoped he’d get his leave..
© Siegfried Sassoon
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