What's this?… |
Everyone Sang Everyone suddenly burst out singing; And I was filled with such delight As prisoned birds must find in freedom, Winging wildly across the white Orchards and dark-green fields; on--on--and out of sight. Everyone's voice was suddenly lifted; And beauty came like the setting sun: My heart was shaken with tears; and horror Drifted away ... O, but Everyone Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done. Siegfried Sassoon. Picture-Show, 1920I stumbled across this by accident. One day I was searching through a dictionary of quotations, I think I was looking for a suitable "error" quote. I found
"Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense."
(Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, Reflections upon Exile)
and used this in some software as a small apology when a runtime error occurred. The dictionary also listed the first line of the poems it contained, and there it was: "Everyone suddenly burst out singing;". It really grabbed my attention, so I looked it up. I rather like it. I wish that I’d paid more attention in my High School English classes (Ms Ell) so that I had a better feel for how one would read it out aloud.