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 Dragon And The Undying

All night the flares go up; the Dragon singsAnd beats upon the dark with furious wings;And, stung to rage by his own darting fires,Reaches with..

© Siegfried Sassoon

The Imperfect Lover

I never asked you to be perfect—did I?—Though often I’ve called you sweet, in the invasionOf mastering love. I never prayed that youMight stand..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Stretcher Case

He woke; the clank and racket of the trainKept time with angry throbbings in his brain.Then for a while he lapsed and drowsed again.At last he lifted..

© Siegfried Sassoon

At The Cenotaph

I saw the Prince of Darkness, with his Staff,Standing bare-headed by the Cenotaph:Unostentatious and respectful, thereHe stood, and offered up the..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Daybreak In A Garden

I heard the farm cocks crowing, loud, and faint, and thin,When hooded night was going and one clear planet winked:I heard shrill notes begin down the..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Haunted

Evening was in the wood, louring with storm.A time of drought had sucked the weedy poolAnd baked the channels; birds had done with song.Thirst was a..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Wirers

‘Pass it along, the wiring party’s going out’—And yawning sentries mumble, ‘Wirers going out.’Unravelling; twisting; hammering stakes with muffled..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Enemies

He stood alone in some queer sunless placeWhere Armageddon ends. Perhaps he longedFor days he might have lived; but his young faceGazed forth..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Reconciliation

When you are standing at your hero’s grave,Or near some homeless village where he died,Remember, through your heart’s rekindling pride,The German..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Devotion To Duty

I was near the King that day. I saw him snatchAnd briskly scan the G.H.Q. dispatch.Thick-voiced, he read it out. (His face was grave.)‘This officer..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Atrocities

You told me, in your drunken-boasting mood,How once you butchered prisoners. That was good!I'm sure you felt no pity while they stoodPatient and..

© Siegfried Sassoon

The Last Meeting

IBecause the night was falling warm and stillUpon a golden day at April’s end,I thought; I will go up the hill once moreTo find the face of him that..

© Siegfried Sassoon

The Poet As Hero

You've heard me, scornful, harsh, and discontented,Mocking and loathing War: you've asked me whyOf my old, silly sweetness I've repented--My..

© Siegfried Sassoon

I Stood With The Dead

I Stood with the Dead, so forsaken and still:When dawn was grey I stood with the Dead.And my slow heart said, 'You must kill, you must kill:'Soldier..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Lovers

You were glad to-night: and now you’ve gone away.Flushed in the dark, you put your dreams to bed;But as you fall asleep I hear you sayThose tired..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Memorial Tablet

Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight,(Under Lord Derby’s Scheme). I died in hell—(They called it Passchendaele). My wound was slight,And I..

© Siegfried Sassoon

The Rear-Guard

Groping along the tunnel, step by step,He winked his prying torch with patching glareFrom side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air.Tins, boxes..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Blind

His headstrong thoughts that once in eager strifeLeapt sure from eye to brain and back to eye,Weaving unconscious tapestries of life,Are now thrust..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Together

Splashing along the boggy woods all day,And over brambled hedge and holding clay,I shall not think of him:But when the watery fields grow brown and..

© Siegfried Sassoon

On Passing The New Menin Gate

Who will remember, passing through this Gate,the unheroic dead who fed the guns?Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate,-Those doomed..

© Siegfried Sassoon

The One-Legged Man

Propped on a stick he viewed the August weald;Squat orchard trees and oasts with painted cowls;A homely, tangled hedge, a corn-stalked field,And..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Secret Music

I keep such music in my brainNo din this side of death can quell;Glory exulting over pain,And beauty, garlanded in hell.My dreaming spirit will not..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Butterflies

Frail Travellers, deftly flickering over the flowers;O living flowers against the heedless blueOf summer days, what sends them dancing throughThis..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Elegy

Your dextrous wit will haunt us longWounding our grief with yesterday.Your laughter is a broken song;And death has found you, kind and gay.We may..

© Siegfried Sassoon

Survivors

No doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and strainHave caused their stammering, disconnected talk.Of course they’re ‘longing to go out..

© Siegfried Sassoon