posted on 2024-05-02, 18:52authored byFirst World War Poetry Digital Archive Project Team
I killed them, but they would not die. Yea! all the day and all the night For them I could not rest nor sleep, Nor guard from them nor hide in flight Then in my agony I turned And made my hands red in their gore. In vain---for faster than I slew They rose more cruel than before. I killed and killed with slaughter mad; I killed till all my strength was gone. And still they rose to torture me, For Devils only die for fun. I used to think the Devil hid In women's smiles and wine's carouse. I called him Satan, Balzebub. But now I call him dirty louse.
History
Identifier
3295.txt
Creator
Rosenberg, Isaac (1890-1918)
Date
1977
Date Created
01/01/1977
Temporal Date
31/12/1977
Type
Poem
Rights
The Isaac Rosenberg Literary Estate. As published in Rosenberg, Isaac; Bottomley, Gordon [ed.]; Harding, Denys [ed.], The Collected Poems of Isaac Rosenberg. London: Chatto and Windus, 1977. Preliminaries and editorial matter omitted.