Siegfried Sassoon’s “Trench Duty”

Siegfried Sassoon’s “Trench Duty” is written in iambic pentameter within an ABAB rhyme scheme. The overall tone of the poem appears to be grim and the atmosphere hectic. Out of all the poems we have analzyed this semester, “Trench Duty” is the most obvious World War One poem. Not only does the title make it clear that the poem discusses the war, but also the content. The diction is striking and straight to the point as is the imagery. There is little use of symbolism or allusion; in fact, it sounds more like a memoir than a figurative poem of much literary value. The writing is so straightforward that the central purpose in turn is very evident, and most likely will be uniform amongst all interpreters. The central purpose of “Trench Duty” appears to be to illustrate the brevity of human life during WW1, which is illustrated through Sassoon’s use of syntax and diction.

The syntax in “Trench Duty” is very light, which makes impacts the atmosphere of the poem. From the onset of the poem, the reader is thrown into a hectic scene. The soldier is “shaken from sleep, and numbered and scarce awake”. All at once, the reader is following the soldier make his way “through the splashing mirk” and “crouching in cabins candle-chinked with light” to reach the “Boche”, an offensive term for a German soldier.

The diction used once the soldier reaches the German bunker further emphasizes the brevity of human life and how soldiers grew to take death for granted. “Five minutes ago I heard a sniper fire: Why did he do it?…Starlight overhead—“. The speaker begins to question why shots were fired, but then becomes distracted by the starlight. The soldier cannot focus on aspects of war, as he has learnt to take it for granted.

The poem’s conclusion is relatively eerie. “Blank stars. I’m wide-awake; and some chap’s dead.” The soldier has just finished his assault on the “Boche” and now can’t sleep. To summarize his experience, all he can say is “some chap’s dead”. The structure of the poem itself further supports the central purpose, as the rhythm of the iambic pentameter and the characteristics of a sonnet evoke a feeling of brevity once the poem has concluded.

“Before the Mirror” & “Greater Love”

“Before the Mirror “by Algernon Charles Swinburne is considered to be a response to Wilfred Owen’s “Greater Love” due to the striking similarities in their central purpose, which appears to be to serve as a spokesman for their fellow combatants in the war. In Before The Mirror, the title states, “(verse written under a picture) Inscribed to JA Whistler). When verses are inscribed under a picture, we can assume that what is being discussed is an obituary. Similarly, the purpose of Greater Love is to portray a soldier’s emotional relationship to the war by discussing death through an apostrophe, a woman. Both these purposes convey the mindset of soldiers during the war, a fear of war and constant contemplation of women.

We can draw many parallels between the two poems in terms of their diction, imagery, and overall purpose. For example, the diction strikes a chord as they have similar beginnings in terms of imagery and diction. “Before the Mirror” opens with “White rose in red rose-garden is not so white” and Owen opens his poem with “Red lips are not so red as the stained stones kissed by the English dead.” Both refer to red; initially I felt this was a reference to blood, but instead I realized that they were both discussing the fact that what appears to be real is not necessarily reality. Interestingly, the poems’ tone is significantly frightened and disheartened in comparison to the other poems we have discussed this semester. This further supports the idea that the purpose of both poems is to convey the mindset of soldiers during the war. Additionally, the structure and style is very similar between the two. Both poets use rose and other flowers as symbols to help convey their message about how in the midst of all the beauty, “the red rose garden”, our fear of war stands out, “white rose…is not so white”.

We should also take into account the context of when these poems were published. “Before The Mirror” actually is not a WW1 poem in the sense that it was not published during the war; nevertheless, it still has the stylistic features and characteristics of a WW1 poem. Published during the Victorian era, a period of peace, prosperity, and refined sensibiltiies. Still, the tone of the overall poem is fairly grim as in “Greater Love”. Hence,   “Greater Love” is a satirical response to “Before the Mirror”, as the overall atmosphere was exactly what “Before the Mirror” describes.  The first stanza clarifies this connection; “White rose in red rose-garden Is not so white”, what we see is not what it appears to be. The dismay and anxiety that Swinburne conveys in his poem is represented in Owen’s “Greater Love”.

“Escape” by Robert Graves

“Escape” by Robert Graves is a poem written with an AABB rhyme scheme. Stylistically, this poem brings out the internal conflict Robert Graves faced as he was torn between his ethical life as a Georgian schoolboy and the brutality of war. This central purpose of the poem is illustrated through his use of diction, imagery, and metaphors. Graves alludes to Cerberus at several points throughout the poem, a mythological three-headed dog which guards the gates to the Underworld. Cerberus symbolizes Graves himself, who is “wearing three heads—lion, and lynx, and sow”.

The imagery of Cerberus adds to the scary tone, typical of a WW1 poem. “Of demons, heroes, and policeman-ghosts. Life! Life! I can’t be dead! I wont be dead!” The diction adds to this frightening atmosphere, as the solider is clearly on his way to death—the Underworld. This notion ties in with the eerie title, “Escape”, and the text below it: “August 6, 1916—Officer previously reported died of wounds, now reported wounded: Graves, Captain R., Royal Welch Fusiliers.”

Graves himself has died and is on his way to the Underworld, but is trying to escape. The diction used adds to the scrambling, anxious mood of the poem, with Graves describing his predicament with words such as “buzzing”, “roared”, “clattered”, “morphia’, and “grapple”.

Overall, Graves is frightened about his looming death, and has used metaphors in “Escape” to convey his emotions. At the end of the poem, it appears that Graves has indeed entered the Underworld and the beastly Cerberus has negated any chances of returning. “Too late! For I’ve sped through. O Life! O Sun!”

Comparing WW1 Poetry

Siegfried Sassoon’s “Repression of War Experience” and Wilfred Owen’s “Greater Love” are two poems that share a number of common elements and literary features. The speaker of both poems is a soldier, which gives the audience an insight into both authors, and demonstrates how both were strongly opposed to fighting the war. As the First World War War went on, Sassoon felt that it was being needlessly prolonged. Sassoon concluded that the war was one of “aggression and conquest”. Similarly, Owen was felt a degree of animosity towards the War; ironically, Owen sadly passed away only days before the Armistice was signed. This idea ties in with the central purpose of both Sassoon and Owen’s poem, which appears to be to illustrate a soldier’s emotional connection and relationship with war through their experience in battles, and their desire to avoid becoming insane respectively. Their writing conveys a specific WW1 style, including traits such as the loss of innocence or a dark dejected tone. Sassoon and Owen convey this message through their use of imagery, and diction.

Robert Graves stated that war destroys innocence, a key element of WW1 poetry style, and his “Greater Love” illustrates that. Despite the lighthearted tone of the poem, there is a dark theme.

The overall poem is an apostrophe; the speaker is a soldier who is speaking to war, which has been personified as a woman. We can infer this through Owen’s imagery, as he portrays scenes such as “All the stained stones kissed by the English dead”, or “Where God seems not to care”. The statement, “stained stones kissed by the English dead” represents the brutal environment of war, where the ground is covered with heads of dead English soldiers. This brutal environment lacks morality, as “God seems not to care”. The poem opens with the line, “red lips are not so red”, conveying that ‘seeing is believing’ does not exist in war. You can never be sure about what you see. The beauty of war, the red lips on a woman, is in reality not so beautiful, and hence “not so red”.

Moreover, the diction used supports the idea of the poem serving as an apostrophe, with words such as “slender”, “kissed”, “wooed”, “soft”, and “dear” used to paint the picture of a woman. The diction suggests that the soldier’s has an emotional tie to war, which is further supported in the fourth stanza. “And though your hand be pale, paler are all which trail your cross through flame and hail: weep, you may weep, for you may touch them not.” The woman—war—is close to dying, as her hands are growing paler. She is crossing through opposites, “cross through flame and hail”, meaning that she is crossing the path between life and death. The final stanza of the poem carries a hint of irony, as Owen is speaking about how the war is dying, yet he was killed before the war had passed away.

This type of language is typical of a WW1 poem, as it demonstrates how vulgar content can be constructed and morphed based on the diction and imagery of the poet. Sassoon wrote similarly in his “Repression of War Experience”. Sassoon advocated how people were still human despite being soldiers, and that death is the same for everyone. However, in comparison to Owen, his writing was far more morbid, as illustrated in his poem. This is most likely attributed to the internal conflict he faced, torn between the innocence and faith he had as a Gregorian schoolboy, and the brutality of trench warfare.

In terms of imagery, Sassoon paints the image of a ghostly environment, with “crowds of ghosts among the trees”, contributing to the eerie tone of the passage. The soldier is mentally affected by their experiences in war, and attempts to avoid reminding themselves of the dead. Additionally, the soldier is used to seeing a grim spectrum of death and decay, but when the soldier sees books, he or she finds it to be “jolly company”. They state that the books can be found “dressed in dim brown, and black, and white, and green, and every kind of color”, which illustrates the excitement that goes through the soldier’s mind when they find an escape from their depressing lifestyle of war.

Sassoon’s diction depicts the desire for the soldier’s to suppress their superstitions and emotions, as he uses words such as “gagged” and “jabber” in the first stanza. Moreover, the conclusion brings out the essence of the poem, “those whispering guns—O Christ, I want to go out and screech at them to stop—I’m going crazy; I’m going stark, staring mad because of the guns”. The experiences of war have been engraved in the soldier’s mind, who cannot escape the constant ring of gunfire in their head. “They never cease—those whispering guns”. The soldier is trapped by their experiences, and is prone to “go mad” if “they lose control of ugly thoughts”, meaning that if they cannot suppress their emotions, they run the risk of going insane.

Evidently, Sassoon also showed the loss of innocence of faith in religion apparent in most WW1 poetry. Societal values had changed after the War, and Sassoon and Owen conveyed their ideas towards morality and humanity within these two poems.

Wilfred Owen’s “Greater Love”

Wilfred Owen’s “Greater Love” poem consists of four stanzas with an AABBBA rhyme scheme. The poem’s textual structure itself stands out, as the second and sixth line in each stanza is indented further than the others, representative of Owen’s technically innovative style. Owen sadly passed away only days before the Armistice was signed, and as he was so opposed to fighting the war, his death adds a degree of despondency to his poetry. The purpose of “Greater Love” appears to be to portray a soldier’s emotional relationship to the war, illustrated by Owen’s use of imagery, metaphors, and diction.

The overall poem is an apostrophe; the speaker is a soldier who is speaking to war, which has been personified as a woman. We can infer this through Owen’s imagery, as he portrays scenes such as “All the stained stones kissed by the English dead”, or “Where God seems not to care”. These statements evoke a sense of helplessness, contributing to the morbid tone of the poem. The statement, “stained stones kissed by the English dead” represents the brutal environment of war, where the ground is covered with heads of dead English soldiers. This brutal environment lacks morality, as “God seems not to care”. The poem opens with the line, “red lips are not so red”, conveying that ‘seeing is believing’ does not exist in war. You can never be sure about what you see. The beauty of war, the red lips on a woman, is in reality not so beautiful, and hence “not so red”.

The metaphors throughout “Greater Love” are sparse, but bring forth the idea of the apostrophe within the poem. “Trembles not exquisite like limbs knife-skewed” conveys the fragility of human life, “limbs knife-skewed”, and also bring a human element to the personification of war as the statement begins with “your slender attitude”. Owen expresses the fierceness of war, and how “till the fierce love they bear cramps them in death’s extreme decrepitude”. Similarly, this metaphor could represent the ability of love to result in the downfall of a woman. This idea is further supported with the word “cramps”, which evokes images of giving birth.

The diction used supports the idea of the poem serving as an apostrophe, with words such as “slender”, “kissed”, “wooed”, “soft”, and “dear” used to paint the picture of a woman. The diction suggests that the soldier’s has an emotional tie to war, which is further supported in the fourth stanza. “And though your hand be pale, paler are all which trail your cross through flame and hail: weep, you may weep, for you may touch them not.” The woman—war—is close to dying, as her hands are growing paler. She is crossing through opposites, “cross through flame and hail”, meaning that she is crossing the path between life and death. The final stanza of the poem carries a hint of irony, as Owen is speaking about how the war is dying, yet he was killed before the war had passed away.

Siegfried Sassoon “Repression of War Experience”

Siegfried Sassoon’s “Regression of War Experience” is a poem consisting of three stanzas with no rhyme scheme. Sassoon generally wrote satires condemning the war. As the war went on, Sassoon felt that it was being needlessly prolonged, despite his high standing as a recipient of the Military Cross for bravery. Sassoon concluded that the war was one of “aggression and conquest”. This idea ties in with the central purpose of Sassoon’s poem, which appears to be to illustrate a soldier’s attempt to avoid becoming insane due to their experiences in battle; Sassoon illustrates this through his use of metaphors, imagery, and diction.

In the first line of the poem, Sassoon refers to a moth, which symbolizes a soldier in war. The moth “scorches its wings with glory, liquid flame”, or in other words is physically tarnished in battle. Moreover, the moth possesses characteristics of the disoriented soldier, as the “dizzy moth bumps and flutters”. The moth lives in a harsh environment, where “in the breathless air outside the house the garden waits for something that delays”. The soldier’s harsh surroundings impact their view on life; they are expecting death but have yet to be killed.

In terms of imagery, Sassoon paints the image of a ghostly environment, with “crowds of ghosts among the trees”, contributing to the eerie tone of the passage. The soldier is mentally affected by their experiences in war, and attempts to avoid reminding themselves of the dead. Additionally, the soldier is used to seeing a grim spectrum of death and decay, but when the soldier sees books, he or she finds it to be “jolly company”. They state that the books can be found  “dressed in dim brown, and black, and white, and green, and every kind of color”, which illustrates the excitement that goes through the soldier’s mind when they find an escape from their depressing lifestyle of war.

Sassoon’s diction depicts the desire for the soldier’s to suppress their superstitions and emotions, as he uses words such as “gagged” and “jabber” in the first stanza. Moreover, the conclusion brings out the essence of the poem, “those whispering guns—O Christ, I want to go out and screech at them to stop—I’m going crazy; I’m going stark, staring mad because of the guns”. The experiences of war have been engraved in the soldier’s mind, who cannot escape the constant ring of gunfire in their head. “They never cease—those whispering guns”. The soldier is trapped by their experiences, and is prone to “go mad” if “they lose control of ugly thoughts”, meaning that if they cannot suppress their emotions, they run the risk of going insane.

The Bough of Nonsense – A Sense of Foreboding

Robert Graves’ The Bough of Nonsense is a poem consisting of six stanzas in an ABABCC rhyme scheme. Graves was a member of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and participated in a number of brutal trench warfare battles. The purpose of Graves’ poem appears to be to portray the effects of war on a soldier once they had left the battlefield, and how these effects give the soldier a sense of foreboding, illustrated by Graves’ use of diction, metaphors, and imagery.

As soon as the reader takes their first glance at the poem, they begin to wonder what the “S” and “R” in the left margin represent. I believe the “S” and “R” symbolize different speakers within the poem, with “S” representing Charles Sorley, who was killed in the Battle of Loos, and “R” representing Robert himself. Graves uses striking diction such as “psalms”, “temple”, “phantom creatures”, “green scales”, and “hymn” that add an almost medieval tone to the poem. This influences the poem’s purpose, as it raises the question of whether Charles intended to romanticize the role of a soldier. This idea is further supported by the poem’s first statement, “An Idyll”. An Idyll is an extremely happy, peaceful, or picturesque, episode or scene, typically an idealized one. Perhaps Graves is trying to recreate the context of trench warfare, portraying the soldiers as “phantom creature-slaying” knights.

The imagery of The Bough of Nonsense supports this concept of a romanticized trench warfare scene. Graves paints the war scene as a “deep grove all hushed and dim…to glorious yellow-bunched banana-trees, planted in dreams by pious Portuguese”. Obviously, the environment of trench warfare was not conducive to this kind of setting. This imagery seems to suggest that Graves’ poem is actually a satirical work, which is rare as most soldiers would be unlikely to write satirically about their experiences in war. However, the title and text does support this notion, with the terms “nonsense” found throughout.

Graves’ metaphors confirm the poem’s central purpose. Robert states that “They’ve built a temple with no floor, and whosoever worships in that place, he disappears from sight and leaves no trace”. The temple represents the battlefield, where soldiers pray to God that they will survive to see the next day. If they are killed, they will forever be forgotten. Once a soldier leaves the battlefield, figuratively rather than literally, they will be forgotten. This is a depressing thought, which reinforces the overlying gloomy theme of the overall poem. Robert states at the end of the fifth stanza that, “The roof fell in an crushed them flat…When nonsense is the foundation for the walls”. Graves is criticizing the moral foundation of the battlefield, or “temple”. He knows that regardless of how he performs in trench warfare, nothing can stop a bullet from shooting him dead cold by surprise. It is the inevitability of death that gives Grave such a strong sense of foreboding, and this fearful apprehension is evident in Grave’s title, The Bough Of Nonsense. With the main branch of warfare, the bough, being relatively nonsense, there is little hope for survival.

Are Steers Just As Masculine As Bulls?

The steers and the bulls in Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises hold a number of varied connotations and representations. To understand these representations, we must first draw the line between steers and bulls. A steer is male bovine animal that has been castrated and is raised for beef. A bull is a male bovine animal that is known for its strength, aggression, and broad build. Therefore, one would assume that steers are preferred over bulls for their more serene disposition and is generally a safer animal.

Jake and Cohn are steers, young individuals castrated—Cohn figuratively in comparison with Jake’s actual impotence—who are not sexually mature. Generally cattle like to follow each other and hence, steers may attempt to follow bulls. Evidently, Cohn is a steer for this reason alone, infamous throughout the novel for his servile attitude towards Brett, a bull. However, Jake is more successful his ability to join the herd of bulls, as he is considered part of the expatriate group consisting of Mike, Bill, and Brett.

The bulls, not having been castrated, are sexually potent. Mike and Brett are very sexually active; Brett has a promiscuous reputation, substantiating the notion that she is a bull. Brett exhibits masculine characteristics; she wears her hair short at a time when women generally had long hair. Brett first enters the novel surrounded by a group of homosexuals in a bar. The homosexuals, who could be seen as steers because of their “castrated” nature, along with Jake, another steer, are the only people with whom Brett is truly comfortable, just as a bull is calmed down by being surrounded by steers. Jake and the homosexuals do not pose a threat to Brett in any way, and therefore she can let her guard down around them.

Ironically however, the bulls in The Sun Also Rises aren’t very masculine at all. Mike has difficulties coping with Brett’s unfaithfulness and is unable to take charge in their “relationship”. His inability to improve his circumstances provokes anger within him, illustrating his insecurity. Brett is a very complex character, who is fighting an internal struggle due to her separation with her husband despite her calm demeanor. She is highly indecisive, unwilling to commit to a relationship with Jake, but also unable to let her feelings for him go. Her inability to take charge translates into her sporadic outbursts of sorrow and self-pity; ironically, she confides in Jake, a steer.

Robert, is supposed to symbolize masculinity since he is a champion boxer, but is a steer, and ends up running away crying because he is unable to see Brett with other men. Interestingly however, Hemingway conjures thoughts of Robert as a bull when Jake describes how bulls use their horns: “look how he knows how to use his horns,’ I said. ‘He’s got a left and a right just like a boxer'” (139).

Mike turns to heavy drinking and insulting Cohn, because he cannot stand to see Cohn around Brett. Mike gores Cohn as if he were a bull, and even says that Cohn would like being a steer: “‘It’s no life being a steer,’ Robert Cohn said. ‘Don’t you think so?’ Mike said. ‘I would have thought you’d loved being a steer, Robert'” (141). Evidently, and Mike’s “horns” are his insults, illustrating how inauthentic Mike’s self declared bull status really is.

Top Ten List: Lady Ashley

The Top Ten Reasons Why I Want to Be Lady Ashley in Hemmingway’s “The Sun Also Rises”

10. You can make people meet you halfway at your finish line.

9. You steer the bulls wild, Olay!

8. When you jump off a cliff, all the men will follow you.

7. If Nicole Scherzinger and Arnold Schwarzenegger had a child, it would be you.

6. You can lead a guy on while leaving him behind.

5. Bill will pay your bills.

4. Guys will crush on you like Saumya crushes on her brother’s friends

3. Men will listen to your long stories like our English class listens to Tim’s jokes/anecdotes

2. You will never have any to meet obligations.

And the number one reason I would want to be Lady Ashley is…

1. You can say whatever you want and people will still take you seriously.

[Permission was sought prior to citing classmates’ names]