Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). Picture-Show. 1920.
33. Falling Asleep
V
Thud of feet and a muffled shutting of doors:
Everyone yawning. Only the clocks are alert.
Crowded with whispering trees; across the park
A hollow cry of hounds like lonely bells:
And I know that the clouds are moving across the moon;
The low, red, rising moon. Now herons call
And wrangle by their pool; and hooting owls
Sail from the wood above pale stooks of oats.
And where to-day was dream-like, build my dreams.
Music … there was a bright white room below,
And someone singing a song about a soldier,
One hour, two hours ago: and soon the song
Will be ‘last night’: but now the beauty swings
Across my brain, ghost of remembered chords
Which still can make such radiance in my dream
That I can watch the marching of my soldiers,
And count their faces; faces; sunlit faces.
September in the darkness; and the world
I’ve known; all fading past me into peace.