posted on 2024-04-19, 17:44authored byFirst World War Poetry Digital Archive Project Team
In that I loved you, Love, I worshipped you; In that I worshipped well, I sacrificed. All of most worth I bound and burnt and slew: The innocent small things, fair friends and Christ. I slew all falser loves, I slew all true, For truth is the prime lie men tell a boy. Glory I cast away, as bridegrooms do Their splendid garments in their haste of joy. But when I fell and held your sandalled feet, You laughed; you loosed away my lips; you rose. I heard the singing of your wings' retreat; And watched you, far-flown, flush the Olympian snows, Beyond my hoping. Starkly I returned To stare upon the ash of all I burned.
History
Identifier
3376.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.