|
|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
JOY-BELLS, by SIEGFRIED SASSOON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Ring your sweet bells; but let them be farewells
Last Line: Shoulder to shoulder with the motor-bus.
Subject(s): Bells; Soldiers' Writings; World War I; First World War
First Line: Ring your sweet bells; but let them be farewells
Last Line: Shoulder to shoulder with the motor-bus.
Subject(s): Bells; Soldiers' Writings; World War I; First World War
RING your sweet bells; but let them be farewells
To the green-vista'd gladness of the past
That changed us into soldiers; swing your bells
To a joyful chime; but let it be the last.
What means this metal in windy belfries hung
When guns are all our need? Dissolve these bells
Whose tones are tuned for peace: with martial tongue
Let them cry doom and storm the sun with shells.
Bells are like fierce-browed prelates who proclaim
That 'if our Lord returned He'd fight for us.'
So let our bells and bishops do the same,
Shoulder to shoulder with the motor-bus.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
D'ANNUNZIO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY
1915: THE TRENCHES by CONRAD AIKEN
TO OUR PRESIDENT by KATHARINE LEE BATES
THE HORSES by KATHARINE LEE BATES
CHILDREN OF THE WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES
THE U-BOAT CREWS by KATHARINE LEE BATES
THE RED CROSS NURSE by KATHARINE LEE BATES
WAR PROFITS by KATHARINE LEE BATES
THE UNCHANGEABLE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN