The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173583   Message #4209177
Posted By: Joe Offer
02-Oct-24 - 01:42 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: We Died in Hell - Passchendaele album
Subject: ADD: I died in hell. They called it Passchendaele
I'm not sure how this fits in, but I thought it might have value.

Memorial Tablet
(GREAT WAR)

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 duck-boards: 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.
Once I came home on leave: and then went west . . .
What greater glory could a man desire?
November 1918

Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)

Source: https://net.lib.byu.edu/english/wwi/children/memorial.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m26FC6sSAqw

Also see https://fatheredwardbarlow.wordpress.com/2020/11/08/siegfried-sassoon-three-poems-for-remembrance/