Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON READING THE WAR DIARY OF A DEFUNCT AMBASSADOR, by SIEGFRIED SASSOON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: So that's your diary - that's your private mind Last Line: That once kept europe safe for perpetuity. Subject(s): Diaries; Diplomacy And Diplomats; Freedom; Peace; Veterans Day; Liberty | ||||||||
So that's your Diarythat's your private mind Translated into shirt-sleeved History. That Is what diplomacy has left behind For after-ages to peruse, and find What passed beneath your elegant silk-hat. You were a fine old gentleman; compact Of shrewdness, charm, refinement, and finesse. Impeccable in breeding, taste, and dress. No diplomatic quality you lacked No tittle of ambassadorial tact. I can imagine you among "the guns," Urbanely peppering partridge, grouse, or pheasant Guest of those infinitely privileged ones Whose lives are padded, petrified, and pleasant. I visualize you feeding off gold-plate And gossiping on grave affairs of State. Now you're defunct; your gossip's gravely printed; The world discovers where you lunched and dined On such and such a day, and what was hinted By ministers and generals far behind The all-important conflict, carnage-tinted. The world can read the rumors that you gleaned From various Fronts; the well-known Names you met Each conference you attended and convened; And (at appropriate moments) what you ate. Thus (if the world's acute) it can derive Your self, exact, uncensored, and alive. The world will find no pity in your pages; No exercise of spirit worthy of mention; Only a public-funeral grief-convention; And all the circumspection of the ages. But I, for one, am grateful, overjoyed, And unindignant that your punctual pen Should have been so constructively employed In manifesting to unprivileged men The visionless officialized fatuity That once kept Europe safe for Perpetuity. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOVE THE WILD SWAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS AFTER TENNYSON by AMBROSE BIERCE QUARTET IN F MAJOR by WILLIAM MEREDITH CROSS THAT LINE by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE EMANCIPATION by ELIZABETH ALEXANDER |
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