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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ENEMIES by SIEGFRIED SASSOON

Poet Analysis

First Line: HE STOOD ALONE IN SOME QUEER SUNLESS PLACE
Last Line: BECAUSE HIS FACE COULD MAKE THEM UNDERSTAND.
Subject(s): SOLDIERS' WRITINGS; WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;

HE stood alone in some queer sunless place
Where Armageddon ends. Perhaps he longed
For days he might have lived; but his young face
Gazed forth untroubled: and suddenly there thronged
Round him the hulking Germans that I shot
When for his death my brooding rage was hot.

He stared at them, half-wondering; and then
They told him how I'd killed them for his sake --
Those patient, stupid, sullen ghosts of men;
And still there seemed no answer he could make.
At last he turned and smiled. One took his hand
Because his face could make them understand.




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