Sassoon(TM)s poetry is too angry to be effective.

“Sassoon’s poetry is too angry to be effective.”

Kay Bennett

Siegfried Sassoon produced some of the Great War’s most bitter, ironic and satirical poetry with the intention of conveying the horror of the reality of war. Prior to enlisting in August 1914, he lived a comfortable upper-class life, indulging in pursuits such as fox-hunting, golf and cricket. He heavily influenced the verse of fellow seminal war poet Wilfred Owen and was great friends with Robert Graves. In 1917, he spoke out against the war but eventually returned to it.

Targets of the anger in Sassoon’s poetry were those higher up in the military hierarchy. ‘Base Details’ and ‘The General’, in particular, use satire to communicate resentment for the incompetence, indifference and obliviousness of the generals.

“He’s a cheery old card [...]

But he did it for them both with his plan of attack” – The General

“And speed glum heroes up the line to death [...]

Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel [...]

Yes, we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap.

And when the war is done and youth stone dead,

I’d toddle safely home and die—in bed. – Base Details

As well as showing anger towards military figures, the final lines of ‘Base Details’ also reflect the anger felt by the younger generation towards their elders, whom they saw as selfish armchair warriors who had little understanding of the suffering out in the trenches. A similar feeling is expressed in EA Mackintosh’s Recruiting and in Wilfred Owen’s The Parable of the Old Man and the Young:

Fat civilians wishing they
Could go and fight the Hun;
Can't you see them ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

And when the war is done and youth stone dead,

I’d toddle safely home and die—in bed. – Base Details

Fat civilians wishing they
Could go and fight the Hun;
Can't you see them thanking God

That they're over forty one? [...]

Lads, you’re wanted. Come and die. - Recruiting

But the old man would not do so, but slew his son,

And half the seed of Europe, one by one. - The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

Compared to Recruiting, I find Base Details most effective. Recruiting, I feel, is certainly more blunt and direct in both its message and its structure, but the shortness of Sassoon’s verse works in its favour, as does, his technique of satirising the perspective of the generals by putting himself in their shoes. I would not say that either were more angry than the other, but I find the satire in Base Details more skilful and more effective at putting across the bitterness.

However, I find The Parable of the Old Man and the Young the most effective of the three. The tone is far more subdued than in the other two and uses a familiar Bible tale (the story of Abraham offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God) and this serves to make the last two lines, quoted above, so much more effective as they jolt you from what you might expect. Owen’s choice to not make the poem blatantly angry and bitter the whole way through cause the last lines to stay in the readers mind. In this case, I feel that the sustained anger of Sassoon’s poetry is less effective.

In Siegfried Sassoon: A Study of the War Poetry, Patrick Campbell writes that ‘Perhaps the most frequently articulated criticism of [Sassoon’s] war verse is that it is too often motivated by and infused with anger, that it is consequently one-dimensional and partisan, that it savages ‘Blighty’ values and puts nothing in their place.’ I would agree with this sentiment to some extent; in particular I feel that ‘Glory Of Women’ is less effective because of this. My initial impression of the poem was that it was reduced complex issues to black-and-white terms, and I felt that the repeated use of ‘you’ was too confrontational and isolating.

You make us shells. You listen with delight,

By tales of dirt and danger fondly thrilled.

I find Sassoon similarly over-simplistic in the last lines of ‘Lamentations’, after a description of a man grieving for a dead comrade:

In my belief
Such men have lost all patriotic feeling.

He satirises those who would see the lament as unpatriotic (i.e. insensitive officers) but at the same time criticises patriotism itself, this creates a false dichotomy; it is possible to be both patriotic and sympathetic to those that have passed away.

However, angry satire is not a feature of all of Sassoon’s poetry; ‘Died of Wounds’ and ‘The Dug-Out’ are both tragic and harrowing images of the fatalities of war. ‘The Dug-Out’ focuses on a specific moment between an officer and his young fusilier:

You are too young to fall asleep for ever;

And when you sleep you remind me of the dead.

In terms of structure, ‘The Dug-Out’ is reminiscent of ‘Base Details’ – they are both ten lines long. ‘Base Details’ is far angrier and harsh whilst ‘The Dug-Out’ is more atmospheric, personal and poignant but in both Sassoon uses the technique of delivering the major ‘blow’ in the last line. This shows that Sassoon can be versatile and effective even in non-satirical poetry, he is able to be touching without being overly sentimental.

In conclusion, much of Sassoon’s verse presents a satirical, angry anti-war viewpoint in an assured and clear-cut manner, the majority making one point in very few lines. This is why Sassoon’s poetry is so effective – a single succinct and biting message delivered in a satirical voice protesting against hypocrisy and ignorance.

References: Siegfried Sassoon by Patrick Campbell, The Art Of Restraint by Richard Hoffpauir