Children Poetry Presentation Carina Tsai Frannie Shih

Everyone suddenly burst out singing; And I was filled with such delight As prisoned birds must find in freedom, Winging wildly across the white Orchards 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 horror Drifted away... O, but Everyone Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done. EVERYONE SANG SIEGFRIED SASSOON

It was written in April of 1919, and marked the end of WWI "Everyone Sang" is how the writer imagined the soldier's celebrated when they heard the news that the war was finally over. The narrator “I” of this poem appears to be a soldier. The soldiers are happy that the war has ended, but they are sad that not all of them made it to the end alive.

THINK ABOUT THEM … 1. Who is 'Everyone'? 2. Where are they? 3. Why are they 'suddenly' singing? 4. What has happened? 5. Why will the singing 'never be done'? 6.What is the 'beauty' referred to? 7.What might the 'horror' be?

The Answer to the Questions "Everyone" refers to all of the soldiers on the battle field (friend and foe),and they are singing and celebrating the end of the war. (Q1,2,3,4) The singing will never be done, because they made it through the war alive, and they are singing the song of life and peace. (Q5) The 'setting sun' refers to death. And the beauty describes a sublime death. (Q6) The horror refers to the danger of losing their lives on the battle field. (Q7)

Why We like this poem When we first read the poem, we did not know the true meaning of it, but we could feel the joy and imagined that we were singing birds in the sky. Reading the poem, we feel happy as the narrator, and many beautiful scenes suddenly exists in our mind. We feel like the caged birds soon freed to fly in the sky, and we could oversee the wild fields. We could imagine this joyful scene --- every soldier even if they are friends and foes, they are all singing and celebrating the end of war. We could also feel a little sad, because not everyone could be alive after the war--- the narrator's heart was shaken with tears.

WORKS CITED One Hundred Years of Poetry for Children Lesson on 'Everyone Sang' by Siegfried Sassoon - Sue Dymoke - Poetry Archive o?planId=7747 Analysis of Siegfried Sassoon's Poem Everyone Sang - Yahoo! Voices poem-everyone-sang html