SIEGFRIED Sassoon (1886-1967) - unlike his contemporaries Edward Thomas, Wilfred Owen, Charles Hamilton Sorley, and Isaac Rosenberg - survived the First World War, about which he wrote so critically.
This poem, dated 1919, seems to reflect the euphoria which greeted its ending.
EVERYONE SANG
Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom,
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields; on - on - and out of sight.
Everyone's voice was suddenly lifted;
And beauty came like the setting sun:
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away. . .O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.
April 1919
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