Who is Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, 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 a jingoism-fuelled war. Sassoon became a focal point for dissent within the armed forces when he made a lone protest against the continuation of the war in his "Soldier's Declaration" of 1917, culminating in his admission to a military psychiatric hospital; this resulted in his forming a friendship with Wilfred Owen, who was greatly influenced by him. Sassoon later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume fictionali...
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Siegfried Sassoon Poems

• Bombardment
  Four days the earth was rent and torn
  By bursting steel,
  The houses fell about us;
  Three nights we dared not sleep, ...
• Atrocities
  You told me, in your drunken-boasting mood,
  How once you butchered prisoners. That was good!
  I'm sure you felt no pity while they stood
  Patient and cowed and scared, as prisoners should. ...
• 'they'
  The Bishop tells us: 'When the boys come back
  'They will not be the same; for they'll have fought
  'In a just cause: they lead the last attack
  'On Anti-Christ; their comrades' blood has bought ...
• The Portrait
  I watch you, gazing at me from the wall,
  And wonder how you'd match your dreams with mine,
  If, mastering time's illusion, I could call
  You back to share this quiet candle-shine. ...
• Sassoon's Public Statement Of Defiance
  'I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.
  
  I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects witch actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.
  ...

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Siegfried Sassoon Quotes

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Comments about Siegfried Sassoon

• Papooseloose: "...the impassioned pigmy fist clenched cloudward and defiant; the pride that would prevail, the doomed protagonist grappling the ghostly giant ..." -siegfried sassoon
• Publisherswkly: soldiers don't go mad, charles glass's account of the friendship between wwi poets wilfred owen and siegfried sassoon, is "an immersive look at the healing power of art and a forceful indictment of the inhumanity of war." pw's review:
• War_poets: 28 march 1918 after describing a peaceful day exploring the countryside around the camp siegfried sassoon writes ‘but as i finish this someone comes into the tent with more ghastly news of the french battle.’
• War_poets: 27 march 1916 siegfried sassoon writes ‘i shivered & turned chilly, & thought of safety & home & years that might be. and tommie’s dead.’
• War_poets: 27 march 1917 siegfried sassoon notes that he has seen the spectator for march 17th in which heinemann advertises his book as ‘ready shortly.’ he writes ‘being about ten days behind the civilised world of london, i suppose i’m published by now!’

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