The Death-Bed by Siegfried Sassoon
He drowsed and was aware of silence heaped
Round him, unshaken as the steadfast walls;
Aqueous like floating rays of amber light,
Soaring and quivering in the wings of sleep.
Silence and safety; and his mortal shore
Lipped by the inward, moonless waves of death.
Someone was holding water to his mouth.
He swallowed, unresisting; moaned and dropped
Through crimson gloom to darkness; and forgot
The opiate throb and ache that was his wound.
Water—calm, sliding green above the weir.
Water—a sky-lit alley for his boat,
Bird- voiced, and bordered with reflected flowers
And shaken hues of summer; drifting down,
He dipped contented oars, and sighed, and slept.
Night, with a gust of wind, was in the ward,
Blowing the curtain to a glimmering curve.
Night. He was blind; he could not see the stars
Glinting among the wraiths of wandering cloud;
Queer blots of colour, purple, scarlet, green,
Flickered and faded in his drowning eyes
Rain—he could hear it rustling through the dark;
Fragrance and passionless music woven as one;
Warm rain on drooping roses; pattering showers
That soak the woods; not the harsh rain that sweeps
Behind the thunder, but a trickling peace
,Gently and slowly washing life away.
He stirred, shifting his body; then the pain
Leapt like a prowling beast, and gripped and tore
His groping dreams with grinding claws and fangs.
But someone was beside him; soon he lay
Shuddering because that evil thing had passed.
And death, who'd stepped toward him, paused and stared.
Light many lamps and gather round his bed
.Lend him your eyes, warm blood, and will to live.
Speak to him; rouse him; you may save him yet.
He's young; he hated War; how should he die
When cruel old campaigners win safe through?
But death replied: 'I choose him.' So he went,
And there was silence in the summer night;
Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep.
Then, far away, the thudding of the guns.
This is a war poem as you can see in the last paragraph Then far away, the thudding of guns. WHere a man, in his deathbed, is far away from the war, and in safety and silence. The is use of figurative language in the poem, like in the first stanza, there is personification as the silence takes a human action, and "heaped" around him. In the next stanza, there is a lot of reference to water, that he remembers, his good memories on a summer day, and in the third stanza, there is use of personification as the clouds are seen to wander, and the use of metaphor as the clouds are referred to as blots of colour, purple, scarlet, green, and the use of the word drowning is a hyperbole, as it shows his struggle against death. In the next stanza, there is more reference to water, in the form of rain. And there is a hint that he would die, as the rain was slowly and gently washing life away. In the next stanza, it is shown a simile as the pain is referred like a prowling beast, and this is yet another personification as the pain "gripped and tore" his dreams with "grinding claws and fangs". By the next stanza, the people know the person is going to die, and are gathering. The person next died in his sleep, and there was silence, once again.
Why I like this poem
War poems are somehow nice, with the person dying, but what a person thinks of when he his killing another or dying of a wound. Take another poem, how to kill, yet another war poem, but since i did it before, i believe this would be a good add on to see what people think and what happens, when they die. Death is seen as a person and the poem actually needs you to read in depth to actually check whats the meaning of the poem. It is also more simply written, unlike those with Thou, Thee, Thy and others like those. Those are just difficult to read.
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