Suicide in the Trenches (1918) by Siegfried Sassoon

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.


Exactly 100 years ago today the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie were shot dead in Saravejo by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip. In exactly one month this event led to World War I, during which Siegfried Sassoon wrote this poem while on service. It was later published in "Counter-Attack and Other Poems".