The Collected Poems of Siegfried Sassoon

by Siegfried Sassoon

This collection of Siegfried Sassoon’s poetry contains 2 collections of poems—War Poems and Counter Attack—totaling 103 poems! It includes an active table of contents for smooth navigation and has been formatted for optimal viewing on the Kindle! The collection includes:

War Poems, including:
PRELUDE: THE TROOPS
DREAMERS
THE REDEEMER
TRENCH DUTY
WIRERS
BREAK OF DAY
A WORKING PARTY
STAND-TO: GOOD FRIDAY MORNING
"IN THE PINK"
THE HERO
BEFORE THE BATTLE
THE ROAD
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AFTER
THE DREAM
AT CARNOY
BATTALION RELIEF
THE DUG-OUT
THE REAR-GUARD
I STOOD WITH THE DEAD
SUICIDE IN TRENCHES
ATTACK
COUNTER-ATTACK
THE EFFECT
REMORSE
IN AN UNDERGROUND DRESSING-STATION
DIED OF WOUNDS
"THEY"
BASE DETAILS
LAMENTATIONS
THE GENERAL
HOW TO DIE
EDITORIAL IMPRESSION
FIGHT TO A FINISH
ATROCITIES
THE FATHERS
"BLIGHTERS"
GLORY OF WOMEN
THEIR FRAILTY
DOES IT MATTER?
SURVIVORS
JOY-BELLS
ARMS AND THE MAN
WHEN I'M AMONG A BLAZE OF LIGHTS …
THE KISS
THE TOMBSTONE-MAKER
THE ONE-LEGGED MAN
RETURN OF THE HEROES
TWELVE MONTHS AFTER
TO ANY DEAD OFFICER
SICK LEAVE
BANISHMENT
AUTUMN
REPRESSION OF WAR EXPERIENCE
TOGETHER
THE HAWTHORN TREE
CONCERT PARTY
NIGHT ON THE CONVOY
A LETTER HOME
RECONCILIATION
MEMORIAL TABLET
THE DEATH-BED
AFTERMATH
SONG-BOOKS OF THE WAR
EVERYONE SANG

Counter Attack, including:
PRELUDE: THE TROOPS
COUNTER-ATTACK
THE REAR-GUARD
WIRERS
ATTACK
DREAMERS
HOW TO DIE
THE EFFECT
TWELVE MONTHS AFTER
THE FATHERS
BASE DETAILS
THE GENERAL
LAMENTATIONS
DOES IT MATTER?
FIGHT TO A FINISH
EDITORIAL IMPRESSIONS
SUICIDE IN THE TRENCHES
GLORY OF WOMEN
THEIR FRAILTY
THE HAWTHORN TREE
THE INVESTITURE
TRENCH DUTY
BREAK OF DAY
TO ANY DEAD OFFICER
SICK LEAVE
BANISHMENT
SONG-BOOKS OF THE WAR
THRUSHES
AUTUMN
INVOCATION
REPRESSION OF WAR EXPERIENCE
THE TRIUMPH
SURVIVORS
JOY-BELLS
REMORSE
DEAD MUSICIANS
THE DREAM
IN BARRACKS
TOGETHER

Genres: Poetry, War, Classics, World War I, History, Literature, 20th Century

94 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE was born into a wealthy banking family, the middle of 3 brothers. His Anglican mother and Jewish father separated when he was five. He had little subsequent contact with ‘Pappy’, who died of TB 4 years later. He presented his mother with his first ‘volume’ at 11. Sassoon spent his youth hunting, cricketing, reading, and writing. He was home-schooled until the age of 14 because of ill health. At school he was academically mediocre and teased for being un-athletic, unusually old, and Jewish. He attended Clare College, Cambridge, but left without taking his degree. In 1911, Sassoon read ‘The Intermediate Sex’ by Edward Carpenter, a book about homosexuality which was a revelation for Sassoon. In 1913 he wrote ‘The Daffodil Murderer,’ a parody of a John Masefield poem and his only pre-war success. A patriotic man, he enlisted on 3rd August, the day before Britain entered the war, as a trooper in the Sussex Yeomanry. After a riding accident which put him out of action, in May 1915 he joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a second lieutenant. At the training depot he met David Thomas, with whom he fell in love.
In November Sassoon received word that his brother Hamo had died at Gallipoli. On 17th Nov he was shipped to France with David Thomas. He was assigned to C Company, First Battalion. It was here that he met Robert Graves, described in his diary as ‘a young poet in Third Battalion and very much disliked.’ He took part in working parties, but no combat. He later became transport officer and so managed to stay out of the front lines. After time on leave, on the 18th of May, 1916 he received word that David Thomas had died of a bullet to the throat. Both Graves and Sassoon were distraught, and in Siegfried’s case it inspired ‘the lust to kill.’ He abandoned transport duties and went out on patrols whenever possible, desperate to kill as many Germans as he could, earning him the nickname ‘Mad Jack.’ In April he was recommended for the Military Cross for his action in bringing in the dead and wounded after a raid. He received his medal on the day before the Somme. For the first days of the Somme, he was in reserve opposite Fricourt, watching the slaughter from a ridge. Fricourt was successfully taken, and on the 4th July the First Battalion moved up to the front line to attack Mametz Wood. It was here that he famously took a trench single handed. Unfortunately, Siegfried did nothing to consolidate the trench; he simply sat down and read a book, later returning to a berating from Graves. It was in 1917, convalescing in 'Blighty' from a wound, that he decided to make a stand against the war. Encouraged by pacifist friends, he ignored his orders to return to duty and issued a declaration against the war. The army refused to court martial him, sending him instead to Craiglockhart, an institution for soldiers driven mad by the war. Here he met and influenced Wilfred Owen. In 1918 he briefly returned to active service, in Palestine and then France again, but after being wounded by friendly fire he ended the war convalescing. He reached the rank of captain. After the war he made a predictably unhappy marriage and had a son, George. He continued to write, but will be remembered as a war poet.

Reviews

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Until my faith, absolved from fear,
Sings out into the morning,
And tells them how we travel far,
From life to life, from star to star;
Exult, unknowing what we are;"

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sasoon tillhör de där ödesburna figurerna som man förstår, inte håller med och sympatiserar fullständigt med samtidigt.

Sasoons problem, bortsett från hans politik, är att han är väldigt ojämn. Många av dikterna slår hårt - deras budskap är tunga, och deras tanke djup, och deras tre fyra inledande strofer, eller de strofer Sasoon byggde sin text runt, är gudagivna. Men resten är inte alltid av samma kvalitet.

När Sasoon är som bäst, i de korta halvsidersdikter som han skrev mellan världskrigen, och efter det 2a, är hans svarta humor det kitt som binder samman tanke och kärnstrofer, och som fyller utfyllnadsmaterialet med mening. Ett bra exempel på detta är dikten "plikttrogenhet" (min översättning) där han jämställer 1a världskrigets generaler med kung David, ivrig att beskriva hur modig Uria var för hans änka; eller den där han beskriver djävulen vid segermonumentet, och hur man efter ett tag glömmer offren, och förfalskar och skapar ära kring dem, för att slippa ta hand om de som offrat.

Just diskrepansen mellan civilsamhällets beteenden och de beteenden som anständigheten egentligen kräver, är typiska för Sasoon. Han är på det sättet en högst medeltida figur, som skulle vara på sin plats (och förmodligen trivts bättre) i vilken miljö som helst, där exmilitärer tilläts styra. Hans avsky mot de som tar för lätt på effekterna av utrikespolitk överträffas bara av hans förakt för diplomater, och desperation inför de besuttna klassernas likgiltighet inför effekterna av deras val. Även om Sasoon av allt att döma hade en komplicerad relation till religion, han skriver frekvent med allusioner till Bibeln, men med en djup misstro mot prästerskapets sociala roll, så skriver han likväl i samma tradition som de judiska profeterna, eller som Valdés under den spanska renässansen. Sasoons svartsynthet räddar honom här från att bli dömande. Han förväntar sig genuint det värsta, och kan därför glädjas när det blir bättre än så.

Hans dikter kan alltså kokas ned till aforismer, med ett sockerpiller runt som gör dem lättare att svälja. Det behövs nog, för aforismerna hade inte stått på egen hand med den ilska som ligger i dem. Likväl är min rekommendation att behandla Sasoon både som konstnär och som en propagandist in spe - med mindre intellektuell hederlighet, och Sasoon, oavsett hans intellektuella missgrepp, var helgjuten och genuin i sin tanke, hade Sasoon blivit en farlig istället för storslagen individ.

Jag kan inte annat än rekommendera hans dikt. Han är ingen Petrarca, men nog så skicklig i sin genre; och om politisk dikt alls tilltalar dig kommer hans bildspråk att göra dig imponerad.

[Steve Merrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

To these I turn, in these I trust;
Brother Lead and Sister Steel.

S Sassoon

There is an anger to Sassoons poetry that like a riptide can make a shortcut directly into your brain, the visualisations that his words can create sting, sometimes unpleasantly, but always with an energy that is startling. The poems can catapult you into a trench or into a green village, and these written snapshots of Sassoons life often grant you an insight into your own. Anger, rage, humanity and humour combine with each word, and within them a man chained by reality speaks to you directly from one hundred years ago. Whilst one hundred years later his words still ring true as we still fight one another with a rhythmic regularity. If you like real history then these poetic snapshots will vividly create the war to end all wars, but because it didn't end all wars, then these poems will be as relevant today as they were then.

[Daniel Klawitter · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I am that man who with a luminous look
Sits up at night to write a ruminant book."
-From the poem "Brevities".

Sassoon is most well known as a war poet reflecting on WWI, but he was also capable of some very tender nature poems and poems about childhood and the imagination as well.

While there are about 8 stand out poems in this collection by my way of counting, I was a bit let down that I didn't resonate more with his work overall. His sing-song style of rhyming does get a bit tedious after a while (and I say this as a poet and song lyricist myself who almost always employs rhyme in my own work.) But reading Sassoon at this juncture in history...many of his poems come across as simply rhyming exercises and often include predictable, unimaginative/repetitive rhymes at that. But he is absolutely still worthy of a read, though I can see why some critics say his best work is actually his prose, including "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer", which is often pointed to as his masterpiece.

[James Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

alarming and haunting glimpses into a sensitive man's hell. The battalions scarred from hell pass by on their way to a troubled sleep as the poet can do no more than mark their passing. A lovely turn of phrase adds a poignancy of a dove's flight over these graphic and inhumane scenes, and lends consolation. Important and brilliant writing.

[B.szoke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sassoon is easily the best poet of the World War I, with an exceptional gift for black humor and lyricism in his poetry. "Base Details" in particular stands out as an exceptional poem.

[Raymonds009 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overall. The explicitly political ones less interesting.

[Luke Gorham · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Not my favorite WWI poet. Go watch Benediction.

[zy · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow

[SophieJaneK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and thoughtful.

[notgettingenough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is it not a pity that we see war as so important it overshadows everything, so that a poet becomes a war poet although there is more to him than that.

Maybe it would be better if we were more naive about war and less cynical about love.

Lovers

You were glad to-night: and now you’ve gone away.
Flushed in the dark, you put your dreams to bed;
But as you fall asleep
I hear you say
Those tired sweet drowsy words we left unsaid.

Sleep well: for I can follow you, to bless
And lull your distant beauty where you roam;
And with wild songs of hoarded loveliness
Recall you to these arms that were your home.



Parted

Sleepless I listen to the surge and drone
And drifting roar of the town’s undertone;
Till through quiet falling rain I hear the bells
Tolling and chiming their brief tune that tells
Day’s midnight end. And from the day that’s over
No flashes of delight I can recover;
But only dreary winter streets, and faces
Of people moving in loud clanging places:
And I in my loneliness, longing for you...

For all I did to-day, and all I’ll do
To-morrow, in this city of intense
Arteried activities that throb and strive,
Is but a beating down of that suspense
Which holds me from your arms.
I am alive
Only that I may find you at the end
Of these slow-striking hours I toil to spend,
Putting each one behind me, knowing but this—
That all my days are turning toward your kiss;
That all expectancy awaits the deep
Consoling passion of your eyes, that keep
Their radiance for my coming, and their peace
For when I find in you my love’s release.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat Victorian in sentiment and more Metaphysical than Modern in praxis, this collection chronicles the ravages of war in notable poems like “The Hero” and “Counter Attack”; its residual, inedible effects in “Aftermath” and “The One Who Was with Me in the War”; and dire warnings for so-called civilizations that would glorify and glamorize war in “Litany of the Lost” and “Words for the Wordless.” Sassoon’s homages to poets— “To an Eighteenth Century Poet,” Shelley and Blake (“Grandeur of Ghosts”), and Vaughan (“At the Grave of Henry Vaughan”)—are also noteworthy.

Favorite Poems:
“The Hero”
“Counter-Attack”
“Aftermath”
“Grandeur of Ghosts”
“To an Eighteenth Century Poet”
“To One Who Was with Me in the War”
“At the Grave of Henry Vaughan”
“Litany of the Lost”
“Words for the Wordless”

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's so easy just to classify Sassoon as "a war poet" but he comments on so much more that just war. His Satires were some of my favorites from this collection- sometimes scathing commentary on British life.

The later poems evoke a sadness that perhaps clarify how Sassoon felt about Britain entering another world war twenty years after the first one ended.

[Christine Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book after having read a biography of Sassoon and i think that that certainly gave an added aspect to the reading of the poems. OK 'not all of them are Bulls eyes' a lot of them are. Sharp observation, biting satire, heartbreaking love poems and even more heart rending angst.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feeling a bit shell shocked, I decided to feel even more so. There's nothing like a trench to put it all into perspective.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genius!

[Angie Rhodes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, haunting, poems that can make you smile, and cry, what more can I say, ? Poetry from the First World War, they make you thihk,

[Cooper Renner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't read as much of this as I thought I might. Might dip into it again later. His war poems are in many cases very good.

[Ocean Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

melancholic and quite pessimistic
but some real gems in there

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 3/4 stars