Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AUGUST 1914 by ISAAC ROSENBERG

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHAT IN OUR LIVES IS BURNT
Last Line: A FAIR MOUTH'S BROKEN TOOTH.
Subject(s): SOLDIERS' WRITINGS; WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;

What in our lives is burnt
In the fire of this?
The heart's dear granary?
The much we shall miss?

Three lives hath one life --
Iron, honey, gold.
The gold, the honey gone --
Left is the hard and cold.

Iron are our lives
Molten right through our youth.
A burnt space through ripe fields,
A fair mouth's broken tooth.



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