WAR POET'S MEDAL TURNS UP IN ATTIC

I am a fan from way back of Siegfried Sassoon so this headline in The Guardian overnight caught my attention.

I have just pulled off the shelf, The War Poems - Siegfried Sassoon - published by Faber & Faber in 1983 so I'll take some time off now to do some reading.

This collection is arranged and introduced by Rupert Hart-Davis.

Author pic from Wikipedia website.

Here is a poem from the above collection:

SUICIDE IN THE TRENCHES

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.