War Poems
by Siegfried Sassoon
The poems collected here, where the course of the First World War can be traced, are an extraordinary testimony to the almost incredible experiences of the warrior in this violent conflict. We proceed from the patriotic optimism of the first few poems ( ... as we fight for our freedom, we are free) to the pain and anger of a later work (hope, with fierce eyes and clenched fists / Floundering in the mud...) comes at a time when the reality and aftershocks of trench warfare become incomprehensible: Sassoon knows this and becomes a powerful element in his art. As a book, the images have a cumulative cruelty, which makes it nearly impossible to read more than a few poems in one sitting.
