Siegfried Sassoon

"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 who have the power to end it
I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldi...

To these I turn, in these I trust;
Brother Lead and Sister Steel
To his blind power I make appeal;
I guard her beauty clean from rust

I found him in the guard-room at the Base
From the blind darkness I had heard his crying And blundered in
With puzzled, patient face A sergeant watched him; it was no good trying To stop it; for he howled and beat his chest
And, all...

His wet white face and miserable eyes Brought nurses to him more than groans and sighs: But hoarse and low and rapid rose and fell His troubled voice: he did the business well
The ward grew dark; but he was still complaining And calling out f...

Quietly they set their burden down: he
To grin; moaned; moved his head from side to side
He gripped the stretcher; stiffened; glared; and screamed,"O put my leg down, doctor, do
" (He'd gotA bullet in his ankle; and he'd been

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 Crouching in cabins candle-chinked with light
Hark

Lost in the swamp and welter of the pit,
He flounders off the duck-boards; only he knows Each flash and spouting crash,—each instant lit When gloom reveals the streaming rain
He goes Heavily, blindly on
And, while he blunders, "...

I knew a simple soldier
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark

You've heard me, scornful, harsh, and discontented,
Mocking and loathing War: you've asked me why Of my old, silly sweetness I've repented— My ecstasies changed to an ugly cry
You are aware that once I sought the Grail,
Riding in ar...

Does it matter
-losing your legs
For people will always be kind,
And you need not show that you

The boys came back
Bands played and flags were flying, And Yellow-Pressmen thronged the sunlit street To cheer the soldiers who’d refrained from dying, And hear the music of returning feet
‘Of all the thrills and ardours War has brought,...

Groping along the tunnel, step by step,
He winked his prying torch with patching glare From side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air
Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes too vague to know,
A mirror smashed, the mattress from a bed;

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 jealousies, and sorrows

‘Pass it along, the wiring party’s 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
The Boche sends up a flare<...

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 was hobbling back; and then a shell Burst slick upon the duck-boards: so I fell Into th...

Dark clouds are smouldering into red While down the craters morning burns
The dying soldier shifts his head To watch the glory that returns; He lifts his fingers toward the skies Where holy brightness breaks in flame; Radiance reflected in hi...