The Effect

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Title:     The Effect
Author: Siegfried Sassoon [More Titles by Sassoon]

The effect of our bombardment was terrific. One man
told me he had never seen so many dead before."--War Correspondent.

_"He'd never seen so many dead before."_
They sprawled in yellow daylight while he swore
And gasped and lugged his everlasting load
Of bombs along what once had been a road.
_"How peaceful are the dead."_
Who put that silly gag in some one's head?

_"He'd never seen so many dead before."_
The lilting words danced up and down his brain,
While corpses jumped and capered in the rain.
No, no; he wouldn't count them any more ...
The dead have done with pain:
They've choked; they can't come back to life again.

When Dick was killed last week he looked like that,
Flapping along the fire-step like a fish,
After the blazing crump had knocked him flat ...
_"How many dead? As many as ever you wish.
Don't count 'em; they're too many.
Who'll buy my nice fresh corpses, two a penny?"_

-THE END-
Siegfried Sassoon's poem: The effect

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