“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 (Abrams 1986, p. 1898).

Works Cited

Abrams, M. H., ed. (1986). The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 2 (Fifth ed.). New York: W. W. 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 (Abrams 1986, p. 1898).

[1]