Has Your Soul Sipped?

Wilfred Owen 1893 (Oswestry) – 1918 (Sambre–Oise Canal)



Has your soul sipped
Of the sweetness of all sweets?
Has it well supped
But yet hungers and sweats?

I have been witness
Of a strange sweetness,
All fancy surpassing
Past all supposing.

Passing the rays
Of the rubies of morning,
Or the soft rise
Of the moon; or the meaning
Known to the rose
Of her mystery and mourning.

Sweeter than nocturnes
Of the wild nightingale
Or than love's nectar
After life's gall.

Sweeter than odours
Of living leaves,
Sweeter than ardours
Of dying loves.

Sweeter than death
And dreams hereafter
To one in dearth
Or life and its laughter.

Or the proud wound
The victor wears
Or the last end
Of all wars.

Or the sweet murder
After long guard
Unto the martyr
Smiling at God;

To me was that smile,
Faint as a wan, worn myth,
Faint and exceeding small,
On a boy's murdered mouth.

Though from his throat
The life-tide leaps
There was no threat
On his lips.

But with the bitter blood
And the death-smell
All his life's sweetness bled
Into a smile.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

55 sec read
119

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAX CCDD XDXDXD BXEF BXBX XEXE XXXX EXEX GXFX XXXX XXXG
Closest metre Iambic dimeter
Characters 931
Words 180
Stanzas 11
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War. more…

All Wilfred Owen poems | Wilfred Owen Books

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