The Poetry Corner

When I'm Among A Blaze Of Lights ...

By Siegfried Loraine Sassoon

When I'm among a blaze of lights, With tawdry music and cigars And women dawdling through delights, And officers at cocktail bars, - Sometimes I think of garden nights And elm trees nodding at the stars. I dream of a small firelit room With yellow candles burning straight, And glowing pictures in the gloom, And kindly books that hold me late. Of things like these I love to think When I can never be alone: Then some one says, "Another drink?" - And turns my living heart to stone.