Suicide in the Trenches

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Poetic devices and poet's voice in 'Suicide in the Trenches'

Name a few poetic devices
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Suicide in the Trenches

                                                   

I knew a simple soldier boy

Who grinned at life in empty joy,

Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,

And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum, 

 With crumps and lice and lack of rum, 

 He put a bullet through his brain. 

 No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye 

 Who cheer when soldier lads march by, 

 Sneak home and pray you'll never know 

 The hell where youth and laughter go. 

^{Siegfried Sassoon, 1917} 

Siegfried Sassoon

8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967

Established poet at beginning of war

Joined army in August 1914

Wounded twice

He became one of the leading poets of the First World War. 

His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for the war.

I knew a simple soldier boy

Who grinned at life in empty joy,

Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,

And whistled early with the lark.

DICTION: informal

 In winter trenches, cowed and glum, 

 With crumps and lice and lack of rum, 

 He put a bullet through his brain. 

 No one spoke of him again.

Poetic devices in the last stanza?

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye

Who cheer when soldier lads march by,

Sneak home and pray you'll never know

The hell where youth and laughter go.

Siegfried Sassoon 1886-1967

• Dubbed the most innocent WWI poet
• Wealthy family
• Earned the nickname "Mad Jack" because of his suicidal behaviour
• Sent to hospital with suspicion of shell shock
• Influenced other poets such as Wilfred Owen

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