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A First World War Childhood Lyrics by Stephen Spender

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March 1916
The middle of the war
- One night long
As all my life -
A child I lay awake
On my bed under
The slant ceiling
Of the attic of The Bluff
Our parents' house
On the Norfolk Coast.
Beyond the garden
The rain-matted fields
Stretched to the edge
Of the cliff, below which
A roaring Nor'Easter
Heaped up waves -
White-maned horses
Charging over rocks
(I thought: 'deep down under the sea
Submarines nose
Among shoals of fish
And waving seaweed
While high above
Zeppelins
Intent to bomb London
Throb through the night
And near the cliff edge
Soldiers in a dugout
Keep watch on our lives)
Wrapped in my blanket
- A crysalis
Wings not yet sprouted -
I stared up at
The ceiling skylight
Where, mile on mile,
Tons of dark weighed
Pressing on glass
And stars like jewels
In cogs of a watch
Divided time
Into minutes and seconds.
Out of that nowhere
Surrounding all
So that any point anywhere
Was at the centre,
There fell a voice
Like a waterfall
Speaking through space
I AM I AM I AM
Then a bomb exploded -
The night went up
In flame that shook
The shrubbery leaves,
And soldiers came
Out of dark speared with flame,
And carried us children
Into their dugout
Below the earth.
Ear pressed against
The khaki uniform
Of mine, in his arms,
I could hear his heart beat -
With the blood of all England.
Credits
Stephen Spender

Stephen Spender

About “A First World War Childhood” by Stephen Spender

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"A First World War Childhood" is credited to Stephen Spender. Songwriting credits may include additional writers listed on the release; check the credits section on this page for linked collaborators.

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