Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

10. Memory

WHEN I was young my heart and head were light,

And I was gay and feckless as a colt

Out in the fields, with morning in the may,

Wind on the grass, wings in the orchard bloom.

O thrilling sweet, my joy, when life was free

And all the paths led on from hawthorn-time

Across the carolling meadows into June.

But now my heart is heavy-laden. I sit

Burning my dreams away beside the fire:

For death has made me wise and bitter and strong;

And I am rich in all that I have lost.

O starshine on the fields of long-ago,

Bring me the darkness and the nightingale;

Dim wealds of vanished summer, peace of home,

And silence; and the faces of my friends.