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").

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

Falling Asleep

Voices moving about in the quiet house:Thud of feet and a muffled shutting of doors:Everyone yawning. Only the clocks are alert.Out in the night..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Noah

When old Noah stared across the floods,Sky and water melted into oneLooking-glass of shifting tides and sun.Mountain-tops were few: the ship was..

© Siegfried Sassoon

The Dreamers

Soldiers are citizens of death's gray land,Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows.In the great hour of destiny they stand,Each with his feuds..

© Siegfried Sassoon

'In The Pink'

So Davies wrote: ' This leaves me in the pink. 'Then scrawled his name: ' Your loving sweetheart Willie 'With crosses for a hug. He'd had a drinkOf..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Wind In The Beechwood

The glorying forest shakes and swings with glancingOf boughs that dip and strain; young, slanting spraysBeckon and shift like lissom creatures..

© Siegfried Sassoon

The Troops

Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloomShudders to drizzling daybreak that revealsDisconsolate men who stamp their sodden bootsAnd turn dulled..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Prelude To An Unwritten Masterpiece

You like my bird-sung gardens: wings and flowers;Calm landscapes for emotion; star-lit lawns;And Youth against the sun-rise ... ‘Not profound;‘But..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Limitations

If you could crowd them into forty lines!Yes; you can do it, once you get a start;All that you want is waiting in your head,For long-ago you’ve..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Companions

Leave not your bough, my slender song-bird sweet,But pipe me now your roundelay complete.Come, gentle breeze, and tarrying on your way,Whisper my..

© Siegfried Sassoon