Everyone Sang
Siegfried Sassoon, 1919
Siegfried Sassoon's short poem of a moment when everyone suddenly burst out singing, filling him with delight like birds set free.
Everyone suddenly burst out singing;And I was filled with such delightAs prisoned birds must find in freedom,Winging wildly across the whiteOrchards 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 horrorDrifted away...O, but EveryoneWas a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.