The War Poets: An Anthology

by Siegfried Sassoon (Contributor), Wilfred Owen (Contributor), Rupert Brooke (Contributor)

A collection of poems written by notable poets of the twentieth century, many of whom saw front line action first hand, including Rudyard Kipling, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, History, World War I

78 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC 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 November 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 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 is best remembered as a war poet.

Reviews

[Tom Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much nobility; so much pain: War!

Such a moving read. The words of tribute to the wounded, dying and dead. The descriptions of the lives they enjoyed and left behind. The last words of those about to submit to the soldier’s fate. The verses of the young men celebrated in Pat Barker’s WW I Trilogy come alive in this brief collection.

These poems of young British poets called to serve in the War to End All Wars touch us so deeply while we have never learned how to stop the madness.

[Marius Plessis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you ever wanted to grasp the slightest feeling of the dread, fear, hopelessness experienced by WW1 soldiers daily (if they lived long enough to experience the trenches daily), then this collection of works by a host of WW1 poets, who fought on the frontlines themselves, is a collection worth looking at.

Of particular note is the poets caustic venom and vitriol aimed at the hypocrisy of the civilians who stayed at home in seeming comfort and peace while all the expressing publicly to fight for their country, though fail to pursue their 'wish'.

[Glen · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The War Poets An Anthology'

In this work 78 pages clearly broken down into individual poems written by those who served during this war.

On a personal note my favourite poet, of this type, Siegfried Sassoon feature largely amongst the names.

Interesting read, humbling to be close to those who suffered so appallingly.

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

War and poetry; neither are for me.

[Ballerina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing poetry written at such a terrible time. Very moving words and images.

[Shabs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the poems, just don’t thing this is the best anthology of war poems (over half of them are by Siegfried Sassoon, that’s not much of an anthology)