War poems of World War I that are really anti-war

FUTILITY (On the death of a young soldier)

Move him into the sun---
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
he kind old sun will know.
hink how it wakes the seeds---
!oke once the clays of a cold star.
Are lim"s, so dear achieved, are sides
Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir# ---
$ what made fatuous sun"eams toil
o "reak earth%s sleep at all#
by WILF!" OW!# ($e himself died during the war% aged &')
(The $appy Warrior(
&is wild heart "eats with painful so"s,
&is strin%d hands clench an ice-cold rifle,
&is aching 'aws grip a hot parch%d tongue,
&is wide eyes search unconsciously.
&e cannot shriek.
(loody saliva
)ri""les down his shapeless 'acket.
I saw him sta"
And sta" again
A well-killed (oche.
his is the happy warrior,
his is he... by $erbert ead
()a*+(
hey ask me where I%ve "een,
And what I%ve done and seen.
(ut what can I reply
!ho know it wasn%t I,
(ut someone 'ust like me,
!ho went across the sea
And with my head and hands
*illed men in foreign lands...
hough I must "ear the "lame,
(ecause he "ore my name. "y !ilfred Gi"son
+iegfried +assoon, )eclaration against the !ar, a statement
I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, "ecause I
"elieve that the !ar is "eing deli"erately prolonged "y those who have the power to end
it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on "ehalf of soldiers. I "elieve that this
!ar, on which I entered as a war of defence and li"eration, has now "ecome a war of
aggression and con-uest. I "elieve that the purpose for which I and my fellow soldiers
entered upon this war should have "een so clearly stated as to have made it impossi"le
to change them, and that, had this "een done, the o"'ects which actuated us would now
"e attaina"le "y negotiation. I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I
can no longer "e a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I "elieve to "e evil
and un'ust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, "ut against the political
errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are "eing sacrificed. $n "ehalf of
those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is "eing
practised on them. also I "elieve that I may help to destroy the callous complacency
with which the ma'ority of those at home regard the contrivance of agonies which they
do not, and which they have not sufficient imagination to reali/e.
dated 15th June 1917
+assoon was also a famous poet who survived the war. his is his poem on a
,ui*ide in the Tren*hes
I knew a simple soldier "oy
!ho grinned at life in empty 'oy,
+lept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
!ith crumps and lice and lack of rum,
&e put a "ullet through his "rain.
0o one spoke of him again.
1ou smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
!ho cheer when soldier lads march "y,
+neak home and pray you%ll never know
he hell where youth and laughter go.