Siegfried Sassoon was a British poet and novelist who is best known today for his poems delving into the horrors of World War One. Born in 1886 to an affluent family, Sassoon's greatest passions were poetry and hunting. His early pre-war work—including the collections Twelve Sonnets (1911), Melodies (1912), An Ode for Music (1912), and Hyacinth (1912)—focused on music and the beauty of the natural world. The poet's own first name came from his mother's love of Wagner's operas. Following his enlistment in World War One, Sassoon gained a formidable reputation in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, fighting on the Western Front in 1915. Sassoon was awarded the Military Cross for bringing back a wounded soldier, demonstrating the concern for fellow soldiers that is often a subject in his war poems. Public reaction to The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon (1919) was strong: some complained about the poet's lack of patriotism, while others found the violence in Sassoon's work too graphic. However, the brutal realism of Sassoon's war poems overall struck a chord with the public.
After sustaining injuries while fighting, Sassoon's increasingly anti-war sentiments were expressed in 1917 in an open letter to the war department in which he refused to return to service. He writes, “I believe that this War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it." The controversial letter, entitled "Soldier's Declaration," was read in the House of Commons and later published in The Times. It was only when Sassoon's friend and fellow soldier-poet Robert Graves interceded on Sassoon's behalf that he was sent for medical treatment for shell shock rather than being court-martialed. Following the war, Sassoon continued to write, mostly to critical acclaim. In 1957 he was awarded the Queen’s Medal for Poetry.
Siegfried Sassoon was a British poet and novelist, best known for his antiwar poetry published after serving as a soldier in the First World War. "Attack," first published in 1918 in the collection Counter-Attack and Other Poems, gives a harrowing...
Siegfried Sassoon was a British poet and novelist who is best known today for his angry, satirical, and compassionate poems concerning the horrors of World War One. "Base Details," written in the poet's diary in 1917 and published in the...
Siegfried Sassoon was a British writer and poet who is remembered today for his angry, satirical, and compassionate poems concerning the horrors of World War I. "The Death Bed," published in the 1917 collection The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, ...
Siegfried Sassoon was a British writer and poet whose work challenged common patriotic conceptions about World War One. "The Rear-Guard," published in Sassoon's 1918 collection Counter-Attack and Other Poems, follows a soldier making his way along...
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) was an English writer who is best remembered today for his stark poetry documenting the horrors of World War I. He drew from his own experiences in the trenches, having fought with the Royal Welch Fusiliers on the...
Siegfried Sassoon was a British poet and novelist who is best known today for his angry, satirical, and compassionate poems concerning the horrors of World War I. "Suicide In The Trenches," published in 1918 in a collection of poems called ...
