Poetry Friday - Alone

Today I have a poem by Siegfried Sassoon. Sassoon is best known as one of the war poets, but the poem below is not a war poem. You can read about the life of Sassoon, A Wounded Poet Who Sang the Crucible of a Generation, in the archives of the New York Times (though the poet himself was British).

ALONE

"When I'm alone"—the words tripped off his tongue

As though to be alone were nothing strange.

"When I was young," he said; "when I was young ..."

I thought of age, and loneliness, and change.

I thought how strange we grow when we're alone,

And how unlike the selves that meet and talk,

And blow the candles out, and say good night.

Alone ... The word is life endured and known.

It is the stillness where our spirits walk

And all but inmost faith is overthrown.

Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)