Suicide in the Trenches
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Suicide in the Trenches is a poem by Siegfried Sassoon, written during his First World War military service and published in his 1918 collection: Counter-Attack and Other Poems.
[edit] The Poem
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumbs and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
[edit] Cultural References
Siegfried Sassoon provided much influence to Pete Doherty, Carl Barat and The Libertines. The pair recited the poem, line by line, to each other at the NME Awards in 2004.
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