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, depicts the final moments of a young soldier's life as he slips in and out of consciousness from wounds sustained while fighting in World War One.
In the poem, a young soldier drifts somewhere between sleep and wakefulness. Sassoon guides the reader on a sensory experience of the soldier's progression toward death, a result of being mortally wounded in battle. "The Death Bed" implies that no one is safe from death or the possibility of war.
The Old Huntsman and Other Poems was well-received due to its honest and grim portrayals of World War I scenes. The collection entered popular culture when The Times and The Manchester Guardian included it in suggested reading and gift lists in 1917. In a letter written by the poet Wilfred Owen to his cousin, he names "The Death Bed" as the "finest poem" in the collection.
