To a Very Wise Man
Siegfried Sassoon 1886 (Matfield) – 1967 (Heytesbury)
I
Fires in the dark you build; tall quivering flames
In the huge midnight forest of the unknown.
Your soul is full of cities with dead names,
And blind-faced, earth-bound gods of bronze and stone
Whose priests and kings and lust-begotten lords
Watch the procession of their thundering hosts,
Or guard relentless fanes with flickering swords
And wizardry of ghosts.
II
In a strange house I woke; heard overhead
Hastily-thudding feet and a muffled scream...
(Is death like that?) ... I quaked uncomforted,
Striving to frame to-morrow in a dream
Of woods and sliding pools and cloudless day.
(You know how bees come into a twilight room
From dazzling afternoon, then sail away
Out of the curtained gloom.)
III
You understand my thoughts; though, when you think,
You’re out beyond the boundaries of my brain.
I’m but a bird at dawn that cries ‘chink, chink’—
A garden-bird that warbles in the rain.
And you’re the flying-man, the speck that steers
A careful course far down the verge of day,
Half-way across the world. Above the years
You soar ... Is death so bad? ... I wish you’d say.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 56 sec read
- 39 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH IJIJKGKG |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,100 |
Words | 189 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
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"To a Very Wise Man" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/34973/to-a-very-wise-man>.
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