October's bellowing anger breakes and cleaves
The bronzed battalions of the stricken wood
In whose lament I hear a voice that grieves
For battle's fruitless harvest, and the feud
Of outrage men. Their lives are like the leaves
Scattered in flocks of ruin, tossed and blown
Along the westering furnace flaring red.
O martyred youth and manhood overthrown,
The burden of your wrongs is on my head.
The bronzed battalions of the stricken wood
In whose lament I hear a voice that grieves
For battle's fruitless harvest, and the feud
Of outrage men. Their lives are like the leaves
Scattered in flocks of ruin, tossed and blown
Along the westering furnace flaring red.
O martyred youth and manhood overthrown,
The burden of your wrongs is on my head.
Contributed by Bartleby - 2010/12/29 - 14:20
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Da “Counter-Attack and Other Poems”
Musica del compositore americano Harold Blumenfeld (1923-vivente?) da “War Lament”, composizione per coro basata sulle poesie di Sassoon (1970).
Scrittore e poeta inglese, Sassoon partecipò alla prima guerra mondiale e nelle sue poesie descrive l’orrore delle trincee e deride il patriottismo di coloro che egli ritenne responsabili della morte di milioni di esseri umani in quel terribile conflitto.
Questa sua poesia del 1918 richiama – a mio avviso - incredibilmente “Soldati”, scritta da Giuseppe Ungaretti nel luglio dello stesso anno: “Si sta come d’autunno sugli alberi le foglie”.