“They”

Poetry Index » By: Siegfried Sassoon (1917)

The Bishop tells us: “When the boys come back^[1]
They will not be the same; for they’ll have fought
In a just cause: they lead the last attack
On Anti-Christ; their comrades’ blood has bought
New right to breed an honourable race, 5
They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.”

“We’re none of us the same!” the boys reply.
“For George lost both his legs; and Bill’s stone blind;
Poor Jim’s shot through the lungs and like to die;
And Bert’s gone syphilitic: you’ll not find 10
A chap who’s served that hasn’t found some change.”
And the Bishop said: “The ways of God are strange!”

Notes and Commentary

↑ Having returned as an invalid in 1917 from the European front, Sassoon had a change of heart about the war and began to express his concerns publicly and with his poetry.

Works Cited

Norton . . .

[1] Having returned as an invalid in 1917 from the European front, Sassoon had a change of heart about the war and began to express his concerns publicly and with his poetry.

[1]