Tanks, powerful bombs that could rip a man to shreds, poison gas, and other gruesome innovations characterized the First World War. The war left a whole generation of people dubbed “The Lost Generation,” as the war left so many of those who fought in it “shell-shocked,” disillusioned, and full of years of memories of endless bombardments and bloody clashes. These scenes of trench warfare especially bring to mind the trenches of the Western Front. One British soldier who fought in these trenches, Siegfried Sassoon, was as disillusioned as the rest of his generation that experienced the horrors of war and expressed this sentiment through poetry. Through his poem “Attack,” written in the end times of the war, he unflinchingly depicts the horror …show more content…
He experienced the effects of this new industrialized warfare, personally and physically. The year he wrote “Attack,” he was shot in the head mistakenly by a member of his own troops. Previously during his service his little brother had been killed in the trenches, and in 1916 he both risked his life by crossing no-man’s-land in order to rescue other wounded soldiers and managed to take a German trench by himself. He experienced the war to its fullest degree of bloodshed, all the while writing poetry in the vein of “Attack” about this …show more content…
They are “clumsily bowed with bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear.” The men “jostle,” meeting the “bristling fire.” “Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear” proceed out of the trenches. This scene would be familiar to many readers. Then, the last lines make Sassoon’s own interpretation of the war devastatingly clear. He calls to the scene Hope, “floundering” in mud. The very last words of the poem are “O Jesus, make it stop!” There is no ambiguity about the effect Sassoon meant these words to have on the reader. He is saying that the war is useless now, has dragged on too long, and causes senseless deaths through brutal means. Hope is, quite literally, a non-factor in Sassoon’s view of the
Many war pieces express a distinct sense of truth, hatred, and anger that can be found in the style, tone, and imagery they possess. Incredible images are created in ones mind as war writings are read and heard. Works written by such writers as Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and Tim OBrien really reach out to the audience by way of the authors choice of words and images that they use in their writing. These talented writers create very touching and heart-felt images as they write about the true occurrences, problems, feelings and emotions that soldiers encountered throughout times of war. It is by way of these writers words that the bloody truth of war is heard, rather than the glorified victories heard which overlook the pain that soldiers went through.
“The poem Death of the ball turret gunner” by Randall Jarrell describes the life of a world war two ball turret gunner, on his mission of protecting his B-17 while on it is on an air raid, bombing Germany. Jarrell somehow shows, in vivid detail how harsh and unforgiving war is, and the shear courage and resolve of what has now become known, as the greatest generation in only five lines. (Gale)
From sunrise to sunset, day after day, war demolishes men, cities, and hope. War has an effect on soldiers like nothing else, and sticks with them for life. The damage to a generation of men on both sides of the war was inestimable. Both the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and the poem “I Have a Rendezvous with Death,” by Alan Seeger, demonstrate the theme of a lost generation of men, mentally and physically, in war through diction, repetition, and personification.
Siegfried Sassoon on the other hand in his poem ‘hero’ seeks to reveal the facade and sad irony of the traditional image of the ‘war-hero’. Sassoon joined the army himself motivated by patriotism, but after his first-hand experiences he expressed his views on the ‘gritty realism’ of war through his writing. One of his most applauded pieces of work is his poem ‘the hero’ in which he touches upon a matter close to his heart; the wide gap between the public perception of the soldier fighting for his country and the stark reality of life in the trenches.
Literature and poetry are a reflection of society. The words are reflected in numerous feelings that we can almost touch and can be deeply felt in its reach. Most poets expressed their perception and emotion through their writings. Unfortunately the art and poetry describes one of the worst things that human can do to one another. The legalized murder called "war." Hence, this type of self-reflection called "poetry" has help create new fundamental ideas and values towards our society. In this essay, I will discuss the issue of the "War Poetry" during the "Great War" along with comparing and contrasting two talented renowned poets; Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) and Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967).
Good morning/afternoon 10 English 2 and Miss Cush. Today I will be comparing 2 poems from our poetic movement of poetry of the first world war and outlining how they reflect the social, cultural and historical influences. The poems I have chosen to compare are ‘Exposure’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘Counter Attack’ by Siegfried Sassoon.
On September 1, 1939, the horrific war known as World War II, the bloodiest and deadliest war to date, began after Hitler invaded Poland from the west. Many authors expressed their feelings on war during wartime periods. On May 19, 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill responded to this war, which included more than 50 nations, in a speech known as “Be Ye Men of Valor.” Siegfried Sassoon, author of “Dreamers” and Wilfred Owen, author of “Dulce Et Decorum Est,” both decided to portray their own view on World War I particularly through poetry. Although both Churchill’s speech and the poems written in regard to World War I were presented nearly twenty years apart, they shared similar thoughts and ideas.
...e poem, a dead soldier in the afterworld where he is confronted by men he killed in battle. throughout Sassoon's writing, understand his own growing sense of guilt over men he himself killed in war. along with men he kills in the poem, men who have died because of the war are all there. the soldier realizes that all of these men are victims of a war known to kill everything he loves. being dead the soldier gains compassion towards the other men. although Sassoon hated the enemy for the death of his brother and fellow soldiers, he is welcome in the eyes of all the dead.
World War I was not the war people expected it to be. People were expecting to defeat the Nazis, then get home by Christmas. This was not the reality. In many cases, young boys lied about their ages in order to join the army, because they felt that they would return war heroes and be remembered for their efforts in the war. What they instead returned with was shell shock and amputated limbs. A war that most thought would last only 6 months, in reality lasted over 4 years. In those 4 years, over 8 million soldiers died and over 20 million were wounded (First World War, n.d.). During this time, many new poets appeared. Many were soldiers or civilians that lived near the fighting. There they saw the reality of war, which differed greatly from what they had grown up hearing about. Some poets based their poems on the battle itself, while others focused on the
In the early 20th century, many poets began to undertake a broad literary movement which was a reaction against the Romanticism of the 19th century, the purpose of which was to depict more realistic situations, rather than the more sentimental aspects of the poems that preceded them. The effects of World War I, which lasted from 1914 to 1918, had a great effect on this “modernist” movement. In Siegfried Sassoon’s “A Working Party,” we can begin to see this modern realism through the use of hard, dry, precise description, traditionally unpoetic language, and the juxtaposition of the personal and universal war experience, as an expression of the poet’s views of the harshness and horror of a world war.
'Attack ', by Siegfried Sassoon, written on the First World War, is a poem considered by many to make a lasting impression of the brutality and chaos of war. Sassoon was a strong opposer of the war; after its completion, he went on to lecture on pacifism, and to become involved in the politics linked to that topic. Writing at a time when much of the poetry being written of the war was heavily romanticised, his poetry was criticised by some as "unpatriotic" or found his graphic depictions of war too extreme. His work still sold well, despite this. These graphic depictions are one of the many things that make this poem have such an impact; the imagery is extremely vivid throughout, and everything, down to the structure of the poem itself create
As a man raised in a wealthy, Jewish household, Siegfried Sassoon shockingly chose to participate in World War 1. While serving in World War One, he realized the horrors and awful events that take place during wars. His poems calling out the first world war become wildly popular critically and publically. Siegfried Sassoon was born on September 8, 1886 in Brenchley, Kent, England. He was born to Alfred and Theresa Sassoon. Sassoon grew up living in lavish because his family gained fortune from India. He lived “the leisurely life of a cultivated country gentleman… pursuing… poetry and fox hunting” (Anonymous 1). He attended and was educated at Marlborough College and Clare College. Though Siegfried had a jewish upbringing, in his adult life
“Suicide in The Trenches” was written in 1917 and published in 1918, which are the years World War I (WWI) was coming to an end. Sassoon was a Captain in the British Army during this time, therefore he had a firsthand experience with the tragedy presented in this era. In this poem, he described the image and the situation of a young boy that took his life during that war. He describes the young man that has lost his innocence and has probably lost his family as well. In WWI,
There is a oxymoron when it is written "undying dead" (line 9) and this shows how the government emphasizes that more men should fight in war and if they do not, they would feel guilty. If the soldiers do not fight the war, they would die in
Since the war broke out, World War I has been a topic of major controversy. Not only were millions of lives lost, but the war led to new laws against specific types of unethical warfare. During the war, Siegfried Sassoon was one of many that wrote with hopes to bring an end to the entire conflict. In his poem “’They,’” Sassoon uses satire to effectively express his frustrations with the aimless deaths in the wars.