32. Secret Music. Sassoon, Siegfried. 1918. The Old Huntsman and Other Poems

Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). The Old Huntsman and Other Poems. 1918.

32. Secret Music

I KEEP such music in my brain
No din this side of death can quell;
Glory exulting over pain,
And beauty, garlanded in hell.

My dreaming spirit will not heed	5
The roar of guns that would destroy
My life that on the gloom can read
Proud-surging melodies of joy.

To the world’s end I went, and found
Death in his carnival of glare;	10
But in my torment I was crowned,
And music dawned above despair.