A WAR POEM
Given below is a war poem with the
title DREAMERS. It is written by Siegfried Sassoon (1866-1967). He was an
English war poet, writer, and soldier. who took part in World War 1 of 1914-1918 .
His distinction was that he fought
whole-heartedly and got himself decorated
for bravery on the Western Front.
According to a literary commentator Sassoon
became one of the best-known – and most controversial ---poets and novelists to
emerge from the First World War.
The poem Dreamers highlights the grim reality of war rather than its glorification.
The terrible toil that World War 1
took of young poets was not only in the loss of promising lives but also in the
bitterness it left with the survivors.
According to Sassoon’s experience:
Soldiers
are dreamers; when the guns begin.
They think of firelit homes, clean
beds, and wives.
But later on, says he, the
scene changes :
I
see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats,
And
in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain.
The
full text of the poem reads as follows:
Soldiers are citizens of death's
grey land,
Drawing no dividend from time's
to-morrows.
In the great hour of destiny they
stand,
Each with his feuds, and jealousies,
and sorrows.
Soldiers are sworn to action; they
must win
Some flaming, fatal climax with
their lives.
Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns
begin
They think of firelit homes, clean
beds and wives.
But later on, says he, the scene changes:
I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed
by rats,
And in the ruined trenches, lashed
with rain,
Dreaming of things they did with
balls and bats,
And mocked by hopeless longing to
regain
Bank-holidays, and picture shows,
and spats,
And going to the office in the
train.
*******
G.R.Kanwal
29 May 2025
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