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57648: The Next War

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posted on 2024-04-19, 17:45 authored by First World War Poetry Digital Archive Project Team

War's a joke for me and you,
While we know such dreams are true.
SIEGFRIED SASSOON
Out there, we walked, quite friendly up to Death, --
Sat down and ate beside him, cool and bland, --
Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand.
We've sniffed the green thick odour of his breath, --
Our eyes wept, but our courage didn't writhe.
He's spat at us with bullets, and he's coughed
Shrapnel. We chorused if he sang aloft,
We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.
Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!
We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.
No soldier's paid to kick against His powers.
We laughed, -- knowing that better men would come,
And greater wars: when every fighter brags
He fights on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.

History

Identifier

3335.txt

Creator

Owen, Wilfred (1893-1918)

Date

1983

Date Created

01/01/1983

Temporal Date

31/12/1983

Type

Poem

Rights

The Estate of Wilfred Owen. The Complete Poems and Fragments of Wilfred Owen edited by Jon Stallworthy first published by Chatto & Windus, 1983. Preliminaries, introductory, editorial matter, manuscripts and fragments omitted.

Repository Name

ProQuest

Publisher

The First World War Poetry Digital Archive

Usage metrics

    The Wilfred Owen Collection

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