Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE IMMORTALS by ISAAC ROSENBERG

Poet Analysis

First Line: I KILLED THEM, BUT THEY WOULD NOT DIE
Last Line: BUT NOW I CALL HIM DIRTY LOUSE.
Subject(s): SOLDIERS' WRITINGS; WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;
I killed them, but they would not die.
Yea, all the day and all the night
For them I could not rest nor sleep,
Nor guard from them nor hide in flight!

Then In my agony I turned
And made my hands red in their gore.
In vain -- for faster than I slew
They rose more cruel than before.

I killed and killed with slaughter mad;
I killed till all my strength was gone;
And still they rose to torture me,
For Devils only die for fun.

I used to think the Devil hid
In women's smiles and wine's carouse;
I called him Satan, Balzebub;
But now I call him dirty louse.




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