Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). The Old Huntsman and Other Poems. 1918.

32. Secret Music

I KEEP such music in my brain

No din this side of death can quell;

Glory exulting over pain,

And beauty, garlanded in hell.

My dreaming spirit will not heed

The roar of guns that would destroy

My life that on the gloom can read

Proud-surging melodies of joy.

To the world’s end I went, and found

Death in his carnival of glare;

But in my torment I was crowned,

And music dawned above despair.