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 Dream

IMoonlight and dew-drenched blossom, and the scentOf summer gardens; these can bring you allThose dreams that in the starlit silence fall:Sweet songs..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Concert Party

(EGYPTIAN BASE CAMP)They are gathering round....Out of the twilight; over the grey-blue sand,Shoals of low-jargoning men drift inward to the..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Picture-Show

And still they come and go: and this is all I know—That from the gloom I watch an endless picture-show,Where wild or listless faces flicker on their..

© Siegfried Sassoon

In Me, Past, Present, Future Meet

In me, past, present, future meetTo hold long chiding conference.My lusts usurp the present tenseAnd strangle Reason in his seat.My loves leap..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Golgotha

Through darkness curves a spume of falling flaresThat flood the field with shallow, blanching light.The huddled sentry staresOn gloom at war with..

© Siegfried Sassoon

October

Across the land a faint blue veil of mistSeems hung; the woods wear yet arrayment soberTill frost shall make them flame; silent and whistThe drooping..

© Siegfried Sassoon

To His Dead Body

When roaring gloom surged inward and you cried,Groping for friendly hands, and clutched, and died,Like racing smoke, swift from your lolling..

© Siegfried Sassoon

To My Brother

Give me your hand, my brother, search my face;Look in these eyes lest I should think of shame;For we have made an end of all things base.We are..

© Siegfried Sassoon

In Barracks

The barrack-square, washed clean with rain,Shines wet and wintry-grey and cold.Young Fusiliers, strong-legged and bold,March and wheel and march..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Sick Leave

When I’m asleep, dreaming and lulled and warm,—They come, the homeless ones, the noiseless dead.While the dim charging breakers of the stormBellow..

© Siegfried Sassoon

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..

© Siegfried Sassoon

France

She triumphs, in the vivid greenWhere sun and quivering foliage meet;And in each soldier’s heart serene;When death stood near them they have seenThe..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Remorse

Lost in the swamp and welter of the pit,He flounders off the duck-boards; only he knowsEach flash and spouting crash,--each instant litWhen gloom..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Morning-Glory

In this meadow starred with springShepherds kneel before their king.Mary throned, with dreaming eyes,Gowned in blue like rain-washed skies,Lifts her..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Battalion-Relief

‘FALL in! Now get a move on.’ (Curse the rain.)We splash away along the straggling village,Out to the flat rich country, green with June...And sunset..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Parted

Sleepless I listen to the surge and droneAnd drifting roar of the town’s undertone;Till through quiet falling rain I hear the bellsTolling and..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Break Of Day

There seemed a smell of autumn in the airAt the bleak end of night; he shivered thereIn a dank, musty dug-out where he lay,Legs wrapped in..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Trench Duty

Shaken from sleep, and numbed and scarce awake,Out in the trench with three hours’ watch to take,I blunder through the splashing mirk; and thenHear..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Fight To A Finish

The boys came back. Bands played and flags were flying,And Yellow-Pressmen thronged the sunlit streetTo cheer the soldiers who’d refrained from..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Lamentations

I found him in the guard-room at the Base.From the blind darkness I had heard his cryingAnd blundered in. With puzzled, patient faceA sergeant..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Dead Musicians

IFrom you, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart,The substance of my dreams took fire.You built cathedrals in my heart,And lit my pinnacled desire.You were the..

© Siegfried Sassoon

David Cleek

I cannot think that Death will press his claimTo snuff you out or put you off your game:You’ll still contrive to play your steady round,Though..

© Siegfried Sassoon

When I’m Among A Blaze Of Lights

When I’m among a blaze of lights,With tawdry music and cigarsAnd women dawdling through delights,And officers in cocktail bars,Sometimes I think of..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Memory

When I was young my heart and head were light,And I was gay and feckless as a coltOut in the fields, with morning in the may,Wind on the grass, wings..

© Siegfried Sassoon

To A Childless Woman

You think I cannot understand. Ah, but I do...I have been wrung with anger and compassion for you.I wonder if you’d loathe my pity, if you knew.But..

© Siegfried Sassoon