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, 1920
I 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.