Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). Picture-Show. 1920.

1. Picture-Show

AND still they come and go: and this is all I know—

That from the gloom I watch an endless picture-show,

Where wild or listless faces flicker on their way,

With glad or grievous hearts I’ll never understand

Because Time spins so fast, and they’ve no time to stay

Beyond the moment’s gesture of a lifted hand.

And still, between the shadow and the blinding flame,

The brave despair of men flings onward, ever the same

As in those doom-lit years that wait them, and have been…

And life is just the picture dancing on a screen.