Picture Show (Sassoon collection)/Memorial Tablet

by Siegfried Sassoon

For other versions of this work, see Memorial Tablet (Sassoon).

MEMORIAL TABLET

(Great War)

 

Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight,(Under Lord Derby's scheme). I died in hell—(They called it Passchendaele). My wound was slight,And I was hobbling back; and then a shellBurst slick upon the duckboards: so I fellInto the bottomless mud, and lost the light.

At sermon-time, while Squire is in his pew,He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare;For, though low down upon the list, I'm there;'In proud and glorious memory'. . .that's my due.Two bleeding years I fought in France, for Squire:I suffered anguish that he's never guessed.Once I came home on leave: and then went west. . .What greater glory could a man desire?