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Saturday 28 September 2013

Joy-Bells by Siegfried Sassoon

    Ring your sweet bells; but let them be farewells
    To the green-vista'd gladness of the past
    That changed us into soldiers; swing your bells
    To a joyful chime; but let it be the last.

    What means this metal in windy belfries hung
    When guns are all our need? Dissolve these bells
    Whose tones are tuned for peace: with martial tongue
    Let them cry doom and storm the sun with shells.

    Bells are like fierce-browed prelates who proclaim
    That "if our Lord returned He'd fight for us."
    So let our bells and bishops do the same,
    Shoulder to shoulder with the motor bus.

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