Death & Dying
The Dying Soldier
From Poems (1922)
“Here are houses,” he moaned,
“I could reach, but my brain swims.”
Then they thundered and flashed,
And shook the earth to its rims.
“They are gunpits,” he gasped,
“Our men are at the guns.
Water!... Water!... Oh, water!
For one of England’s dying sons.”
“We cannot give you water,
Were all England in your breath.”
“Water!... Water!... Oh, water!”
He moaned and swooned to death.
Codex Note
A wounded man asks for water while the guns thunder and flash; the poem ends as he 'moaned and swooned to death'.
Cite this poem
MLA
Rosenberg, Isaac. “The Dying Soldier.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/rosenberg/16/.
Chicago
Rosenberg, Isaac. “The Dying Soldier.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/rosenberg/16/.
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