Picture Show (Sassoon collection)/Reconciliation

For works with similar titles, see Reconciliation.
4354376Picture Show — ReconciliationSiegfried Sassoon

RECONCILIATION

When you are standing at your hero's grave,
Or near some homeless village where he died,
Remember, through your heart's rekindling pride,
The German soldiers who were loyal and brave.

Men fought like brutes; and hideous things were done;
And you have nourished hatred, harsh and blind.
But in that Golgotha perhaps you'll find
The mothers of the men who killed your son.

November, 1918.