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The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon by Siegfried Sassoon
page 23 of 61 (37%)
(That's the lot.)
"_Who's that? O, Sergeant-major; don't get shot!
And tell me, have we won this war or not?_"


THE DUG-OUT

Why do you lie with your legs ungainly huddled,
And one arm bent across your sullen cold
Exhausted face? It hurts my heart to watch you,
Deep-shadow'd from the candle's guttering gold;
And you wonder why I shake you by the shoulder;
Drowsy, you mumble and sigh and turn your head....
_You are too young to fall asleep for ever;
And when you sleep you remind me of the dead._


THE REAR-GUARD

(Hindenburg Line, April 1917.)

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;
And he, exploring fifty feet below
The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

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