13. Lamentations. Sassoon, Siegfried. 1918. Counter-Attack and Other Poems

Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). Counter-Attack and Other Poems. 1918.

13. Lamentations

I FOUND him in the guard-room at the Base.
From the blind darkness I had heard his crying
And blundered in. With puzzled, patient face
A sergeant watched him; it was no good trying
To stop it; for he howled and beat his chest.	5
And, all because his brother had gone west,
Raved at the bleeding war; his rampant grief
Moaned, shouted, sobbed, and choked, while he was kneeling
Half-naked on the floor. In my belief
Such men have lost all patriotic feeling.	10