When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead
Charles Hamilton Sorley 1895 (Aberdeen) – 1915 (Hulluch, Lens)
When you see millions of the mouthless dead
Across your dreams in pale battalions go,
Say not soft things as other men have said,
That you'll remember. For you need not so.
Give them not praise. For, deaf, how should they know
It is not curses heaped on each gashed head?
Nor tears. Their blind eyes see not your tears flow.
Nor honour. It is easy to be dead.
Say only this, "They are dead." Then add thereto,
"Yet many a better one has died before."
Then, scanning all the o'ercrowded mass, should you
Perceive one face that you loved heretofore,
It is a spook. None wears the face you knew.
Great death has made all his for evermore.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 117 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABABBABAACDCDC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 630 |
Words | 123 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
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"When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/5103/when-you-see-millions-of-the-mouthless-dead>.
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