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Home » Famous Poems » Siegfried Sassoon » Ancestors

Ancestors

by Siegfried Sassoon

BEHOLD these jewelled merchant Ancestors 
Foregathered in some chancellery of death;
Calm provident discreet they stroke their beards
And move their faces slowly in the gloom 
And barter monstrous wealth with speech subdued 5
Lustreless eyes and acquiescent lids.

And oft in pauses of their conference 
They listen to the measured breath of night¡¯s
Hushed sweep of wind aloft the swaying trees
In dimly gesturing gardens; then a voice 10
Climbs with clear mortal song half-sad for heaven.


A silent-footed message flits and brings
The ghostly Sultan from his glimmering halls;
A shadow at the window turbaned vast 
He leans; and pondering the sweet influence 15
That steals around him in remembered flowers 
Hears the frail music wind along the slopes 
Put forth and fade across the whispering sea.