At the memorial, around 1 o’clock Charles Dance read the poem Aftermath by English poet, writer, and soldier Siegfried Sassoon, who became decorated for bravery on the Western Front and became one of the leading poets of the First World War.
Have you forgotten yet?…
For the world’s events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you’re a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same–and War’s a bloody game…
Have you forgotten yet?…
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget.
Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz–
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench–
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, ‘Is it all going to happen again?’
Do you remember that hour of din before the attack–
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads–those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay
Have you forgotten yet?…
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you’ll never forget.
Aftermath (Heinemann: 1920)
+
Preceding
Honouring hundreds of thousands of victims of the brutal Somme battle
Ulster Tower ceremony for the Irish at the Somme battle
+++
Related articles
- A sombre day
- And Winter Descended
- The Battle of the Somme 1 July 1916-1 July 2016– a very personal memoir
- The Battle of the Somme 1 July 1916-1 July 2016– a very personal memoir | Enough of this Tomfoolery!
- He is Not Missing, He is Here.
- Europe, war and the imagination
- British Legion Announces Somme100 Commemorations
- The Somme (Battlefield Tour)
- Monet, the battle of the Somme and a mitraillette
Christadelphians
Guestspeaker
Marcus Ampe
Biblestudents – Bijbelstudenten
0 + Bloggers for Peace
Free Christadelphian Ecclesia
Hoop tot Leven – Redding in Christus
Vrije Broeders in Christus (Free Flemish Christadelphians on Wordpress)
Marcus Ampe's Space 
Thank you for noticing and linking to my piece. Given the number of British dead who lie on the continent of Europe, I wish my country were more committed to it, and understood the roots of the whole European project lie in the desire to preserve peace.
I also noticed your piece referring to the 100th anniversary of your father’s birth; my father was born in 1914, very close to the Eastern Front line. And the Second World War sent him into England as a refugee. Truly, we forget the past rather too easily.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Lessons of the Somme | From guestwriters
Pingback: The Somme (1916) Working Class Holocaust | From guestwriters
Pingback: July 4, 1916 – Battle of the Somme greeted with ‘the greatest enthusiasm’ | From guestwriters
Pingback: The Great War changed everything | Marcus Ampe's Space
Pingback: The War to end all wars | From guestwriters
Pingback: Why are we killing? | From guestwriters
Pingback: Anatomy of a World War I Artillery Barrage | Marcus Ampe's Space