Collected Poems 1908-1956

Sassoon is unusual among the generation of World War I poets in that he survived the war and was able to write of it both immediately and retrospectively. Born into a wealthy family, Sassoon grew up steeped in the genteel pleasures of the Edwardian aristocracy. He enlisted as a second lieutenant in World War I, serving in France. Like many poets, Sassoon wrote of the war at first as a noble, chivalric undertaking. But, under the influence of Robert Graves, Sassoon soon developed a more cynical aesthetic. His poem "Repression of War Experience" helps explain the development of his war poetry: It describes the frustration of the soldier trying to communicate the nature of the war to those safe at home and vividly connotes the horror and madness that pervade the soldiers' sustained experience in the trenches. His eventual pacifism and distrust of the military are reflected in his short poem "The General," which blames an uncomprehending and facile wartime leadership for the needless deaths of masses of soldiers. 020