Poems for Workers (Gomez 1925)/Swear You'll Never Forget
Swear You'll Never Forget
By SIEGFRIED SASSOON
HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN YET?
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked awhile at the crossing of the ways:
And the haunted gap in your minds has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heavens of life; and you are a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
BUT THE PAST IS JUST THE SAME—AND WAR'S A BLOODY GAME . . .
HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN YET?
LOOK DOWN, AND SWEAR BY THE SLAIN OF THE WAR THAT YOU'LL NEVER FORGET.
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked awhile at the crossing of the ways:
And the haunted gap in your minds has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heavens of life; and you are a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
BUT THE PAST IS JUST THE SAME—AND WAR'S A BLOODY GAME . . .
HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN YET?
LOOK DOWN, AND SWEAR BY THE SLAIN OF THE WAR THAT YOU'LL NEVER FORGET.
Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz—
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapet?
Do you remember the rats, and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front line trench,—
And dawn coming dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
DO YOU EVER STOP AND ASK, "IS IT GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN?".
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapet?
Do you remember the rats, and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front line trench,—
And dawn coming dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
DO YOU EVER STOP AND ASK, "IS IT GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN?".
Do you remember that hour of din before the attack,—
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of the men?
Do you remember the stretcher cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads,—those ashen grey
Mask of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?
HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN YET?
LOOK UP AND SWEAR BY THE STARS IN THE SKY THAT YOU'LL NEVER FORGET.
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of the men?
Do you remember the stretcher cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads,—those ashen grey
Mask of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?
HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN YET?
LOOK UP AND SWEAR BY THE STARS IN THE SKY THAT YOU'LL NEVER FORGET.