A Cambridge University student, while doing research on the British poet Siegfried Sassoon, has found buried treasure. A poem penned to Sassoon’s boyfriend, Glen Byam Shaw.
Written in 1925, when homosexuality was still a crime in the U.K., perhaps the omission of pronouns is more than a matter of poetic style.
Not a blast from the past, but a sigh…
Untitled poem
Though you have left me, I’m not yet alone:
For what you were befriends the firelit room;
And what you said remains & is my own
To make a living gladness of my gloom
The firelight leaps & shows your empty chair
And all our harmonies of speech are stilled:
But you are with me in the voiceless air
My hands are empty, but my heart is filled.
Copyright Siegfried Sassoon by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon
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Written in iambic pentameter, and almost a sonnet…. what a wonderfully evocative poem. I’m not familiar with Sassoon, but I’m going to go look for his work.
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I’d never heard of him either. Apparently, he was known as a war poet and after WW1, in the 1920s he was going through a tough time with his writing. Wondering what direction to take next when he wrote this 🙂
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There’s a certain similarity to AE Housman, another closeted poet at the turn of the 20th century.
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He’s well known here in the uk. His poetry is very moving. He wrote about being in the trenches during the first world war and although he was awarded the military cross, he renounced war.
JP
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Brave!
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A very moving read. Thank you for sharing this!
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Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! Thank You. 💖
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Now I am looking up more of his poetry!! Thank you for educating me on this remarkable poet!
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He was a new find for me too 🙂
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