Siegfried Sassoon

Absolution The anguish of the earth absolves our eyes A Child's Prayer For Morn, my dome of blue, Aftermath Have you forgotten yet?... A Letter Home (To Robert Graves) Alone I’ve listened: and all the sounds I heard A Mystic As Soldier I lived my days apart, Ancestors Behold these jewelled, merchant Ancestors, Ancient History Adam, a brown old vulture in the rain, An Old French Poet When in your sober mood my body have ye laid A Poplar And The Moon There stood a Poplar, tall and straight; Arcady Unheeding Shepherds go whistling on their way Arms And The Man Young Croesus went to pay his call A Subaltern He turned to me with his kind, sleepy gaze At Carnoy Down in the hollow there’s the whole Brigade At Daybreak I listen for him through the rain, Atrocities You told me, in your drunken-boasting mood, Attack AT dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun At The Cenotaph I saw the Prince of Darkness, with his Staff, Autumn October's bellowing anger breaks and cleaves A Wanderer When Watkin shifts the burden of his cares A Whispered Tale I’d heard fool-heroes brag of where they’d been, A Working Party Three hours ago he blundered up the trench, Banishment I am banished from the patient men who fight Base Details If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath Battalion-Relief ‘FALL in! Now get a move on.’ (Curse the rain.) Because We Are Going Because we are going from our wonted places Before Day Come in this hour to set my spirit free Before The Battle Music of whispering trees Blighters The House is crammed: tier beyond tier they grin Blind His headstrong thoughts that once in eager strife Bombardment Four days the earth was rent and torn Break Of Day There seemed a smell of autumn in the air Butterflies Frail Travellers, deftly flickering over the flowers; Christ And The Soldier I Companions Leave not your bough, my slender song-bird sweet, Concert Party (EGYPTIAN BASE CAMP) Conscripts ‘Fall in, that awkward squad, and strike no more Counter-Attack We’d gained our first objective hours before David Cleek I cannot think that Death will press his claim Daybreak In A Garden I heard the farm cocks crowing, loud, and faint, and thin, Dead Musicians I Devotion To Duty I was near the King that day. I saw him snatch Died Of Wounds His wet white face and miserable eyes Does It Matter? Does it matter? -losing your legs? Dreamers Soldiers are citizens of death's gray land, Dream-Forest Where sunshine flecks the green, Dryads When meadows are grey with the morn Editorial Impressions He seemed so certain ‘all was going well’, Elegy Your dextrous wit will haunt us long Enemies He stood alone in some queer sunless place Everyone Sang Everyone suddenly burst out singing; Ex-Service Derision from the dead Falling Asleep Voices moving about in the quiet house: Fancy Dress Some Brave, awake in you to-night, Fight To A Finish The boys came back. Bands played and flags were flying, France She triumphs, in the vivid green Glory Of Women You love us when we're heroes, home on leave, Goblin Revel In gold and grey, with fleering looks of sin, Golgotha Through darkness curves a spume of falling flares Grandeur Of Ghosts When I have heard small talk about great men Haunted Evening was in the wood, louring with storm. Hero 'Jack fell as he'd have wished,' the Mother said, How To Die Dark clouds are smouldering into red Idyll In the grey summer garden I shall find you In An Underground Dressing Station Quietly they set their burden down: he tried In Barracks The barrack-square, washed clean with rain, In Me, Past, Present, Future Meet In me, past, present, future meet 'In The Pink' So Davies wrote: ' This leaves me in the pink. ' Invocation Come down from heaven to meet me when my breath I Stood With The Dead I Stood with the Dead, so forsaken and still: Joy-Bells Ring your sweet bells; but let them be farewells Lamentations I found him in the guard-room at the Base. Limitations If you could crowd them into forty lines! Lovers You were glad to-night: and now you’ve gone away. Memorial Tablet Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight, Memory When I was young my heart and head were light, Microcosmos I am that fantasy which race has wrought Middle-Ages I heard a clash, and a cry, Miracles I dreamt I saw a huge grey boat in silence steaming Morning Express Along the wind-swept platform, pinched and white, Morning-Glory In this meadow starred with spring Morning-Land Old English songs, you bring to me Night On The Convoy (ALEXANDRIA-MARSEILLES) Night-Piece Ye hooded witches, baleful shapes that moan, Nimrod In September When half the drowsy world’s a-bed Noah When old Noah stared across the floods, October Across the land a faint blue veil of mist On Passing The New Menin Gate Who will remember, passing through this Gate, Parted Sleepless I listen to the surge and drone Picture-Show And still they come and go: and this is all I know— Prelude: The Troops Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloom Prelude To An Unwritten Masterpiece You like my bird-sung gardens: wings and flowers; Reconciliation When you are standing at your hero’s grave, Remorse Lost in the swamp and welter of the pit, Repression Of War Experience Now light the candles; one; two; there’s a moth; Sassoon's Public Statement Of Defiance 'I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. Secret Music I keep such music in my brain Sick Leave When I’m asleep, dreaming and lulled and warm,— Slumber-Song Sleep; and my song shall build about your bed Solar Eclipse Observe these blue solemnities of sky Song-Books Of The War In fifty years, when peace outshines South Wind Where have you been, South Wind, this May-day morning,— Sporting Acquaintances I watched old squatting Chimpanzee: he traced Stand-To: Good Friday Morning I’d been on duty from two till four. Storm And Sunlight I Stretcher Case He woke; the clank and racket of the train Suicide In The Trenches I knew a simple soldier boy Survivors No doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and strain The Choral Union He staggered in from night and frost and fog The Dark House Dusk in the rain-soaked garden, The Death-Bed He drowsed and was aware of silence heaped The Dragon And The Undying All night the flares go up; the Dragon sings The Dream I The Dreamers Soldiers are citizens of death's gray land, The Dug-Out Why do you lie with your legs ungainly huddled, The Fathers Snug at the club two fathers sat, The General ‘Good-morning; good-morning!’ the General said The Goldsmith This job’s the best I’ve done.’ He bent his head The Hawthorn Tree Not much to me is yonder lane The Heritage Cry out on Time that he may take away The Hero 'Jack fell as he'd have wished,' the mother said, The Imperfect Lover I never asked you to be perfect—did I?— The Investiture GOD with a Roll of Honour in His hand Their Frailty He's got a Blighty wound. He’s safe; and then The Kiss To these I turn, in these I trust; The Last Meeting I The One-Legged Man Propped on a stick he viewed the August weald; The Poet As Hero You've heard me, scornful, harsh, and discontented, The Portrait I watch you, gazing at me from the wall, “the Rank Stench Of Those Bodies Haunts Me Still” - P The rank stench of those bodies haunts me still The Rear-Guard Groping along the tunnel, step by step, The Redeemer Darkness: the rain sluiced down; the mire was deep; The Road The Road is thronged with women; soldiers pass The Road To Ruin My hopes, my messengers I sent The Tombstone-Maker He primmed his loose red mouth and leaned his head The Triumph When life was a cobweb of stars for Beauty who came The Troops Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloom The Working Party Three hours ago he blundered up the trench, 'They' The Bishop tells us: 'When the boys come back Thrushes Tossed on the glittering air they soar and skim, To A Childless Woman You think I cannot understand. Ah, but I do... To Any Dead Officer Well, how are things in Heaven? I wish you’d say, To A Very Wise Man I Today This is To-day, a child in white and blue Together Splashing along the boggy woods all day, To His Dead Body When roaring gloom surged inward and you cried, To Leonide Massine In ‘cleopatra’ - P O beauty doomed and perfect for an hour, To My Brother Give me your hand, my brother, search my face; To Victory Return to greet me, colours that were my joy, Tree And Sky Let my soul, a shining tree, Trench Duty Shaken from sleep, and numbed and scarce awake, Twelve Months After Hullo! here’s my platoon, the lot I had last year. Two Hundred Years After Trudging by Corbie Ridge one winter's night, Villon They threw me from the gates: my matted hair Vision I love all things that pass: their briefness is What The Captain Said At The Point-To-Point I’ve had a good bump round; my little horse When I’m Among A Blaze Of Lights - When I’m among a blaze of lights, Wind In The Beechwood The glorying forest shakes and swings with glancing Wirers ‘Pass it along, the wiring party’s going out’— Wisdom When Wisdom tells me that the world’s a speck Wonderment Then a wind blew; Wraiths They know not the green leaves;