The War Poetry of Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Sassoon
The First World War gave rise to a large body of deeply
poignant poets; but few can claim the moving profundity of
Siegfried Sassoon. The son of the disinherited scion of a
wealthy Jewish family, Alfred Sassoon, and an Anglican,
Theresa Thornycroft, Sassoon had enough independent wealth
that before the war he mostly played cricket and wrote
traditional, nature-focused, Romantic-style verse. Upon
enlistment, however, and his lengthy stints on the Western
front, his poetry rapidly became dark, tormented verse,
contemplating the nightmare of the trenches, staring down
the barrels of guns and the glinting points of
bayonets---and driving them into enemies, as well. Haunted
by the war his whole life, Sassoon found peace and solace
only in his later years, upon conversion to the Catholic
religion; but his poetry of the war years, his most powerful
and affective work, should be mandatory reading for those
who have the public trust, and is profitable for the rest of
us, as well. 65pp., index of first lines.
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