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Volume 1 | Issue 1 - Conflict
Article by Marie Stirling. Edited by Liam Geoghegan. Additional Research by Ellie Veryard.
Say you had to name one person associated with the First World War, who would it be? Some might name a general or a political leader, yet many would name a poet. Unlike the majority of their predecessors, the poets of the Great War did not seek to glorify the war; rather portray it in absolute, often shocking terms. They therefore provide an extraordinary insight into the beliefs and conditions endured by soldiers of various ranks on the Western Front. One such of these was Siegfried Sassoon.
Yet, before 1914, there were little signs of the harsh war critic he was to become. Sassoon, born into a family of wealthy Jewish merchants, enjoyed a privileged background. He attended Marlborough College, and Clare College, Cambridge, though he quickly dropped out. He spent the following years before 1914 indulging in London’s society, enjoying small success with his poetry and relaxing in the country After war was declared Sassoon enthusiastically signed up, taking a commission in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. This Sassoon was convinced of the rightness of the cause and the romanticism of war which was triumphed by many, particularly the young poet Rupert Brooke.
However, the poet so familiar to modern readers was soon to emerge. The tone of Sassoon’s poetry changed from patriotic, to one that provided a brutally realistic picture of the lives of the soldiers. Doubtlessly, this transformation arose from his first hand experiences in the trenches. He was posted to Bethune in November 1915, where he was responsible for organising the supplies for the trenches. He was moved to the front line in March 1916, after having been transferred to the Somme. As a soldier, Sassoon was renowned for his reckless bravery; his fellow officers quickly gave him the nickname of “Mad Jack”. His bravery won him the Military Cross in June 1916, in recognition for his actions of rescuing an injured man under fire. As with all soldiers, Sassoon endured conditions which were typical of trench life; small rations, mud and rats. These are remembered in his poem Trench Duty, which was a vivid account of the experience of the day to day life in the trenches. Sassoon felt it was his duty to expose these conditions, as a “soldier-poet”, and so drive away the old romantic notions surrounding warfare. Alongside this Sassoon encountered personal tragedy with the deaths of close friends and that of his own brother at Gallipoli in 1915. It was around this time that Sassoon came into contact with other notable war poets, such as Robert Graves and Robert Blunden. His friendship with Graves in particular was significant, as it was Graves who encouraged him to publish his war poems in The Old Huntsman and Other Poems. The book was published in 1917 and followed by Counter Attack in 1918, both of which caused controversy among readers back in Great Britain.
Sassoon’s poetry was also a means of protest. Does It Matter satirised the popular belief that all able men should sign up to maintain their honour, even at the expense of grievous injury. Various institutions were also mocked; The General attacked the army’s commanders for their incompetence, while ‘They’ challenged the churches for providing justification for the war. Sassoon’s criticism of the war was not only contained to poetry, as he released A Soldiers Declaration in July 1917. Supported by notable pacifists such as Lady Ottoline Morrell and Bertrand Russell, Sassoon stated his belief that the war was unlawful as it was being ‘prolonged’ by those who could end it, through ‘political errors and insincerities’. His declaration was noted publicly, even to the extent of it being read out in the House of Commons on the 30th July. However it failed to make an impact and certainly did not achieve its objective. Sassoon himself was only saved from a court martial by the frantic efforts of Robert Graves and was hastily sent to Craiglochheart, a military hospital, in exile.
Sassoon’s stay at the military hospital has been the focus of much study; in particular it was the centre of Pat Barker’s book Regeneration. Barker covers the growth of the friendship between Sassoon and a fellow patient and poet, Wilfred Owen. Sassoon proved a great inspiration and help for Owen’s poetry. For instance he personally edited Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth, which Sassoon later took on the responsibility to publish. The setting which the two poets were in at the time could not have been more ideal for showing the costs of modern warfare. Craiglochheart in Scotland had been turned into a military hospital in 1916 to treat the new concept of “shell shock”. Prestigious doctors such as Dr Rivers, who appears in Regeneration, were called on to treat men suffering from such psychological injuries.
Both Sassoon and Owen returned to the army after their period at Craiglockheart, a fatal move for Owen who died on the 4th November 1918, a week before Armistice. Sassoon continued to write beyond 1918; in particular he published his
autobiography, recounting in detail his life before, during and after the First World War. However, his most significant work was arguably done. History would remember him with Owen and others as the poets of the Great War. Their work gave new ground to those seeking to understand the nature of the conflict. Sassoon, for both his poems and his Declaration, offered a vital source in regards to the frustrations, conditions and concerns of those in the front line. So, when you think of a person associated with the First World War, spare a thought for Captain Siegfried Sassoon, the soldier-poet.
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