[helphelphelp!]

hallo,
so im studying War poetry and I chose Siegfried Sassoons Poem aftermath and Suicide in the trenches,
was wondering how sassoon represents war in these poems,
a negatve light?
and how the poems and techniques help to prove that the study of war texts is still relevant for today and why any help will be greatly apprecieated

kind regards

After Math - SS
Have you forgotten yet? ...
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you're a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same - and War's a bloody game ...
Have you forgotten yet? ...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget.
Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz -
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench -
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, "Is it all going to happen again?"
Do you remember the hour of din before the attack -
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads - those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?
Have you forgotten yet? ...
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you'll never forget.


Suicide in The Trenches
By Siegfried Sassoon

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go


thanks,

[MrJohnDClare]

There has once before been a thread about this on the forum.

What you need to do is go go through the poems and make a list of the things Sassoon says about the war - what he calls war (two things - one in each poem) and what he means by those two phrases, but more importantly list the details he remembers about it.
Does he remember ANY nice things?
When you read the poem, what impression of the war do you get?

As for their relevance today, what does Sassoon want us to do? And what is the thing we do every November which does so?
Should we remember how awful war is, and what it does

There is a (not very good) analysis of Aftermath here.
Might be worthwhile looking up the Aftermath website - follow the 'Aftermath' tab at the top of the webpage.

[Historygirl9]

The stanzas in the middle describe his war experience, which was radically different from what the civilian populace would have lived through.

Lines 12-24 contain vivid description of the trench warfare and the raw emotion is very distinct. Note that within the same stanza he maintains a consistent rhyme scheme, something that was lost in more modern poetry.

In the final verse, it is not simply a pretty landscape, but the light at the end of the war, a relief and contrast to the mud and slime of trench warfare. Taken together, these contribute to a feeling of lost pre-war innocence.

As a whole, Sassoon is cautioning the reader not to lapse into the old ways of thinking; not to forget the horror and losses of the fist world war.

Hope this helps.

HistoryGirl 9