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    The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon
    The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon
    The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon
    Ebook112 pages46 minutes

    The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon

    By Siegfried Sassoon

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateOct 1, 2006
    Author

    Siegfried Sassoon

    Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC (1886-1967) was an English poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon’s view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war. Sassoon became a focal point for dissent within the armed forces when he made a lone protest against the continuation of the war in his “Soldier’s Declaration” of 1917, culminating in his admission to a military psychiatric hospital; this resulted in his forming a friendship with Wilfred Owen, who was greatly influenced by him. Sassoon later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the “Sherston trilogy”. Sassoon was born on September 8, 1886 in Matfield, Kent, the son of Alfred Ezra Sassoon (1861-1895) and grandson of Sassoon David Sassoon, a member of the wealthy Baghdadi Jewish Sassoon merchant family. His mother was an Anglo-Catholic, and Alfred was disinherited for marrying outside his faith. Siegfried’s mother, Theresa, belonged to the Thornycroft family, sculptors responsible for many of the best-known statues in London. Sassoon was educated at the New Beacon School, Sevenoaks, Kent; at Marlborough College, Wiltshire; and at Clare College, Cambridge, where from 1905-1907 he read history. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Clare College in Cambridge in 1953, and in 1965 an Honorary Doctor of Literature at Oxford. He was also the recipient of the Royal Gold Medal for Poetry (1957) and the coveted decoration of Commander, Order of The British Empire (1951). He married Hester Gatty in 1933 and the couple had one son, George (1936-2006). They resided in Wiltshire, but divorced in 1945. Sassoon died from stomach cancer on September 1, 1967, one week before his 81st birthday.

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    • 4/5

      Mar 31, 2013

      Loved it - Sassoon is surgical in the precision with which he characterises human feelings and emotions, the futility of the war, its blind cruelty, and how in the end soldiers keep fighting because of the loyalty they feel to their companions also thrown in what is perceived quite clearly as a senseless butchery.

      There are so many verses to quote, so many striking poems that the only thing which makes sense is to read them all - however I found the one below incredibly prescient, and think it should be compulsive reading in all schools


      SONG-BOOKS OF THE WAR
      In fifty years, when peace outshines
      Remembrance of the battle lines,
      Adventurous lads will sigh and cast
      Proud looks upon the plundered past.

      On summer morn or winter’s night,
      Their hearts will kindle for the fight,
      Reading a snatch of soldier-song,
      Savage and jaunty, fierce and strong;

      And through the angry marching rhymes
      Of blind regret and haggard mirth,
      They’ll envy us the dazzling times
      When sacrifice absolved our earth.
    • 4/5

      May 30, 2011

      A collection of the poems Siegfried Sassoon wrote about World War I. Very thought-provoking in their observations of a war that Sassoon hated and yet felt compelled to support. A very sad commentary on war from the pen of a participant.
      Wonderful poems, though.
    • 3/5

      Oct 23, 2005

      I am fascinated with Sassoon's World War I story, and hence I have turned to his poetry. His work, often an indictment of the conduct of the war, followed by the disillusionment of his post war poems make interesting and instructive reading.

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    The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon - Siegfried Sassoon

    Project Gutenberg's The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon, by Siegfried Sassoon

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

    Title: The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon

    Author: Siegfried Sassoon

    Release Date: January 22, 2005 [EBook #14757]

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR POEMS OF SIEGFRIED SASSOON ***

    Produced by Ted Garvin, Linda Cantoni, and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

    THE WAR POEMS OF SIEGFRIED SASSOON

    1919

    LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN

    Dans la trêve désolée de cette matinée, ces hommes qui avaient été tenaillés par la fatigue, fouettés par la pluie, bouleversés par toute une nuit de tonnerre, ces rescapés des volcans et de l'inondation entrevoyaient à quel point la guerre, aussi hideuse au moral qu'au physique, non seulement viole le bon sens, avilit les grandes idées, commande tous les crimes—mais ils se rappelaient combien elle avait développé en eux et autour d'eux tous les mauvais instincts sans en excepter un seul; la méchanceté jusqu'au sadisme, l'égoïsme jusqu'à la férocité, le besoin de jouir jusqu'à la folie.

    HENRI BARBUSSE.

    (Le Feu.)

    NOTE

    Of these 64 poems, 12 are now published for the first time. The remainder are selected from two previous volumes.

    CONTENTS

    I

    PRELUDE: THE TROOPS 11

    DREAMERS 13

    THE REDEEMER 14

    TRENCH DUTY 16

    WIRERS 17

    BREAK OF DAY 18

    A WORKING PARTY 21

    STAND-TO: GOOD FRIDAY MORNING 24

    IN THE PINK 25

    THE HERO 26

    BEFORE THE BATTLE 27

    THE ROAD 28

    TWO HUNDRED YEARS AFTER 29

    THE DREAM 30

    AT CARNOY 32

    BATTALION RELIEF 33

    THE DUG-OUT 35

    THE REAR-GUARD 36

    I STOOD WITH THE DEAD 38

    SUICIDE IN TRENCHES 39

    ATTACK 40

    COUNTER-ATTACK 41

    THE EFFECT 43

    REMORSE 44

    IN AN UNDERGROUND DRESSING-STATION 45

    DIED OF WOUNDS 46

    II

    THEY 47

    BASE DETAILS 48

    LAMENTATIONS 49

    THE GENERAL 50

    HOW TO DIE 51

    EDITORIAL IMPRESSIONS 52

    FIGHT TO A FINISH 53

    ATROCITIES 54

    THE FATHERS 55

    BLIGHTERS 56

    GLORY OF WOMEN 57

    THEIR FRAILTY 58

    DOES IT MATTER? 59

    SURVIVORS 60

    JOY-BELLS 61

    ARMS AND THE MAN 62

    WHEN I'M AMONG A BLAZE OF LIGHTS 63

    THE KISS 64

    THE TOMBSTONE-MAKER 65

    THE ONE-LEGGED MAN 66

    RETURN OF THE HEROES 67

    III

    TWELVE MONTHS AFTER 68

    TO ANY DEAD OFFICER 69

    SICK LEAVE 72

    BANISHMENT 73

    AUTUMN 74

    REPRESSION OF WAR EXPERIENCE 75

    TOGETHER 77

    THE HAWTHORN TREE 78

    CONCERT PARTY 79

    NIGHT ON THE CONVOY 81

    A LETTER HOME 83

    RECONCILIATION 87

    MEMORIAL TABLET (GREAT WAR) 88

    THE DEATH-BED 89

    AFTERMATH 91

    SONG-BOOKS OF THE WAR 93

    EVERYONE SANG 95

    I

    PRELUDE: THE TROOPS

    Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloom

    Shudders to drizzling daybreak that reveals

    Disconsolate men who stamp their sodden boots

    And turn dulled, sunken faces to the sky

    Haggard and hopeless. They, who have beaten down

    The stale despair of night, must now renew

    Their desolation in the truce of dawn,

    Murdering the livid hours that grope for peace.

    Yet these, who cling to life with stubborn hands,

    Can grin through storms of death and find a gap

    In the clawed, cruel tangles of his defence.

    They march from safety, and the bird-sung joy

    Of grass-green thickets, to the land where all

    Is ruin, and nothing blossoms but the sky

    That hastens over them where they endure

    Sad, smoking, flat horizons, reeking woods,

    And foundered trench-lines volleying doom for doom.

    O my brave brown companions, when your souls

    Flock silently away, and the eyeless dead,

    Shame the wild beast of battle on the ridge,

    Death will stand grieving in that field of war

    Since your unvanquished hardihood is spent.

    And through some mooned Valhalla there will pass

    Battalions and battalions, scarred from hell;

    The

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