The Fathers

From Wikisource

Jump to: navigation, search
The Fathers
by Siegfried Sassoon
The Fathers is a 1918 poem by the English soldier and poet Siegfried Sassoon published in Counter-Attack and Other Poems.


Snug at the club two fathers sat,
Gross, goggle-eyed, and full of chat.
One of them said: "My eldest lad
Writes cheery letters from Bagdad.
But Arthur's getting all the fun
At Arras with his nine-inch gun."

"Yes," wheezed the other, "that's the luck!
My boy's quite broken-hearted, stuck
In England training all this year.
Still, if there's truth in what we hear,
The Huns intend to ask for more
     Before they bolt across the Rhine."
I watched them toddle through the door —
     These impotent old friends of mine.


PD-icon.svg This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1923. It may be copyrighted outside the U.S. (see Help:Public domain). Flag of the United States.svg