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by Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918)

The last laugh
Language: English 
'Oh! Jesus Christ! I'm hit,' he said; and died.
Whether he vainly cursed or prayed indeed,
The Bullets chirped - In vain, vain, vain!
Machine-guns chuckled, - Tut-tut! Tut-tut!
And the Big Gun guffawed.

Another sighed,-'O Mother, -Mother, - Dad!'
Then smiled at nothing, childlike, being dead.
And the lofty Shrapnel-cloud
Leisurely gestured,-Fool!
And the splinters spat, and tittered.

'My Love!' one moaned. Love-languid seemed his mood,
Till slowly lowered, his whole faced kissed the mud.
And the Bayonets' long teeth grinned;
Rabbles of Shells hooted and groaned;
And the Gas hissed.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Jason Rico (b. 1978), "The last laugh" [voice, piano] [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this page: Jason Rico

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 15
Word count: 89

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