Picture-Show

SIEGFRIED SASSOON
AUTHOR OF THE OLD HUNTSMAN, COUNTER-ATTACK, ETC.
NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 681 FIFTH AVENUE
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
TO JOHN MASEFIELD
CONTENTS
And still they come and go: and this is all I know— That from the gloom I watch an endless picture-show, Where wild or listless faces flicker on their way, With glad or grievous hearts I'll never understand Because Time spins so fast, and they've no time to stay Beyond the moment's gesture of a lifted hand.
And still, between the shadow and the blinding flame, The brave despair of men flings onward, ever the same As in those doom-lit years that wait them, and have been... And life is just the picture dancing on a screen.
When you are standing at your hero's grave, Or near some homeless village where he died, Remember, through your heart's rekindling pride, The German soldiers who were loyal and brave.
Men fought like brutes; and hideous things were done; And you have nourished hatred, harsh and blind. But in that Golgotha perhaps you'll find The mothers of the men who killed your son.