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Title: The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon

Author: Siegfried Sassoon

Release Date: January 22, 2005 [EBook #14757]

Language: English

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THE WAR POEMS OF SIEGFRIED SASSOON

1919

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN

Dans la trêve désolée de cette matinée, ces hommes qui avaient été tenaillés par la fatigue, fouettés par la pluie, bouleversés par toute une nuit de tonnerre, ces rescapés des volcans et de l'inondation entrevoyaient à quel point la guerre, aussi hideuse au moral qu'au physique, non seulement viole le bon sens, avilit les grandes idées, commande tous les crimes—mais ils se rappelaient combien elle avait développé en eux et autour d'eux tous les mauvais instincts sans en excepter un seul; la méchanceté jusqu'au sadisme, l'égoïsme jusqu'à la férocité, le besoin de jouir jusqu'à la folie.

HENRI BARBUSSE.

(Le Feu.)

NOTE

Of these 64 poems, 12 are now published for the first time. The remainder are selected from two previous volumes.

CONTENTS

I

PRELUDE: THE TROOPS 11

DREAMERS 13

THE REDEEMER 14

TRENCH DUTY 16

WIRERS 17

BREAK OF DAY 18

A WORKING PARTY 21

STAND-TO: GOOD FRIDAY MORNING 24

"IN THE PINK" 25

THE HERO 26

BEFORE THE BATTLE 27

THE ROAD 28

TWO HUNDRED YEARS AFTER 29

THE DREAM 30

AT CARNOY 32

BATTALION RELIEF 33

THE DUG-OUT 35

THE REAR-GUARD 36

I STOOD WITH THE DEAD 38

SUICIDE IN TRENCHES 39

ATTACK 40

COUNTER-ATTACK 41

THE EFFECT 43

REMORSE 44

IN AN UNDERGROUND DRESSING-STATION 45

DIED OF WOUNDS 46

II

"THEY" 47

BASE DETAILS 48

LAMENTATIONS 49

THE GENERAL 50

HOW TO DIE 51

EDITORIAL IMPRESSIONS 52

FIGHT TO A FINISH 53

ATROCITIES 54

THE FATHERS 55

"BLIGHTERS" 56

GLORY OF WOMEN 57

THEIR FRAILTY 58

DOES IT MATTER? 59

SURVIVORS 60

JOY-BELLS 61

ARMS AND THE MAN 62

WHEN I'M AMONG A BLAZE OF LIGHTS 63

THE KISS 64

THE TOMBSTONE-MAKER 65

THE ONE-LEGGED MAN 66

RETURN OF THE HEROES 67

III

TWELVE MONTHS AFTER 68

TO ANY DEAD OFFICER 69

SICK LEAVE 72

BANISHMENT 73

AUTUMN 74

REPRESSION OF WAR EXPERIENCE 75

TOGETHER 77

THE HAWTHORN TREE 78

CONCERT PARTY 79

NIGHT ON THE CONVOY 81

A LETTER HOME 83

RECONCILIATION 87

MEMORIAL TABLET (GREAT WAR) 88

THE DEATH-BED 89

AFTERMATH 91

SONG-BOOKS OF THE WAR 93

EVERYONE SANG 95

I

PRELUDE: THE TROOPS

Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloom
Shudders to drizzling daybreak that reveals
Disconsolate men who stamp their sodden boots
And turn dulled, sunken faces to the sky
Haggard and hopeless. They, who have beaten down
The stale despair of night, must now renew
Their desolation in the truce of dawn,
Murdering the livid hours that grope for peace.

Yet these, who cling to life with stubborn hands,
Can grin through storms of death and find a gap
In the clawed, cruel tangles of his defence.
They march from safety, and the bird-sung joy
Of grass-green thickets, to the land where all
Is ruin, and nothing blossoms but the sky
That hastens over them where they endure
Sad, smoking, flat horizons, reeking woods,
And foundered trench-lines volleying doom for doom.

O my brave brown companions, when your souls
Flock silently away, and the eyeless dead,
Shame the wild beast of battle on the ridge,
Death will stand grieving in that field of war
Since your unvanquished hardihood is spent.
And through some mooned Valhalla there will pass
Battalions and battalions, scarred from hell;
The unreturning army that was youth;
The legions who have suffered and are dust.

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, and