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").

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

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