All Poems

/ page 3001 of 3210 /

Order by :

Arms and the Man

© Siegfried Sassoon

Young Croesus went to pay his call
On Colonel Sawbones, Caxton Hall:
And, though his wound was healed and mended,
He hoped hed get his leave extended.

When in your sober mood my body have ye laid
In sight and sound of things beloved, woodland and stream,
And the green turf has hidden the poor bones ye deem
No more a close companion with those rhymes we made;

Twelve Months After

© Siegfried Sassoon

. . . .
Old soldiers never die; they simply fide a-why!
Thats what they used to sing along the roads last spring;
Thats what they used to say before the push began;
Thats where they are to-day, knocked over to a man.

Stand-To: Good Friday Morning

© Siegfried Sassoon

Id 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 swore.

Enemies

© Siegfried Sassoon

He stood alone in some queer sunless place
Where Armageddon ends. Perhaps he longed
For days he might have lived; but his young face
Gazed forth untroubled: and suddenly there thronged
Round him the hulking Germans that I shot
When for his death my brooding rage was hot.

To a Childless Woman

© Siegfried Sassoon

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

Falling Asleep

© Siegfried Sassoon

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

To His Dead Body

© Siegfried Sassoon

When roaring gloom surged inward and you cried,
Groping for friendly hands, and clutched, and died,
Like racing smoke, swift from your lolling head
phantoms of thought and memory thinned and fled.

David Cleek

© Siegfried Sassoon

I cannot think that Death will press his claim
To snuff you out or put you off your game:
Youll still contrive to play your steady round,
Though hurricanes may sweep the dismal ground,
And darkness blur the sandy-skirted green
Where silence gulfs the shot you strike so clean.

Memory

© Siegfried Sassoon

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

A Mystic As Soldier

© Siegfried Sassoon

I lived my days apart,
Dreaming fair songs for God;
By the glory in my heart
Covered and crowned and shod.

Trench Duty

© Siegfried Sassoon

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 then
Hear the gruff muttering voices of the men

'In the Pink'

© Siegfried Sassoon

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 drink
Of rum and tea; and, though the barn was chilly,
For once his blood ram warm; he had pay to spend,
Winter was passing; soon the year would mend.

The Redeemer

Darkness: the rain sluiced down; the mire was deep;
It was past twelve on a mid-winter night,
When peaceful folk in beds lay snug asleep;
There, with much work to do before the light,

Alone

Ive listened: and all the sounds I heard
Were music,wind, and stream, and bird.
With youth who sang from hill to hill
Ive listened: my heart is hungry still.

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 spired wood distinct,
When cloudy shoals were chinked and gilt with fires of day.

Wirers

Pass it along, the wiring partys going out
And yawning sentries mumble, Wirers going out.
Unravelling; twisting; hammering stakes with muffled thud,
They toil with stealthy haste and anger in their blood.

Memorial Tablet

Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight,
(Under Lord Derbys Scheme). I died in hell
(They called it Passchendaele). My wound was slight,
And I was hobbling back; and then a shell
Burst slick upon the duck-boards: so I fell
Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light.