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I have decided that to commemorate Armistice Day this year, I would offer some poems about Remembrance written by Siegfried Sassoon. I offer them as a contemporary commentary on Armistice Day 1918, and the anniversaries in the years that followed. Accompanying the poems are some related photographs.
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Memorial Tablet Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight, (Under Lord Derby's scheme). I died in hell - (They called it Passchendaele). My wound was slight, And I was hobbling back; and then a shell Burst slick upon the duckboards: so I fell Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light At sermon-time, while Squire is in his pew, He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare; For, though low down upon the list, I'm there; "In proud and glorious memory" ... that's my due. Two bleeding years I fought in France, for Squire: I suffered anguish that he's never guessed. I came home on leave: and then went west... What greater glory could a man desire? Siegfried Sassoon (© George Sassoon) |
 Memorial tablet, St Andrews, Mells |
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On Passing the New Menin Gate
Who will remember, passing through this Gate, |
    The Menin Gate, Ypres |
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At the Cenotaph
I saw the Prince of Darkness, with his Staff, |
The Cenotaph, London |
http://www.sassoonery.demon.co.uk/remembrance.htm