Siegfried Sassoon

Here you will find the Poem Grandeur Of Ghosts of poet Siegfried Sassoon

Grandeur Of Ghosts

When I have heard small talk about great men 
I climb to bed; light my two candles; then 
Consider what was said; and put aside 
What Such-a-one remarked and Someone-else replied. 

They have spoken lightly of my deathless friends, 
(Lamps for my gloom, hands guiding where I stumble,) 
Quoting, for shallow conversational ends, 
What Shelley shrilled, what Blake once wildly muttered .... 

How can they use such names and be not humble? 
I have sat silent; angry at what they uttered. 
The dead bequeathed them life; the dead have said 
What these can only memorize and mumble.