Suicide in the Trenches

SUICIDE IN THE TRENCHES : A FIRST TESTIMONY OF THE WAR

Aina García Poesía Anglesa S.XIX i XX Universitat de València

It is difficult to imagine something truly poetic and beautiful generating from war and conflict. For most of us the experience of war is remote. Those who have been affected by its destructive force are fortunately in a minority, but this was not always the case. (1) The First World War provides one of the seminal moments of the twentieth-century in which literate soldiers, plunged into inhuman conditions, reacted to their surroundings in poems reflecting Wordsworth's 'spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings'. Stephen (1996) states that 'no school of verse has ever been linked more clearly to a historical event' (p. xiii) and that 'Society's vision of this historical event...was ironically determined by a literary response to it, and it is the vision of some of the war's poets that has dominated the popular image of what that war was to those who fought in it and lived through it.' (p. xii). (2) More than any other conflict, the Great War inspired writers of all generations and classes, most notably among combatants. This was a period in which there was a big production. The war's poets are chiefly celebrated today, although much outstanding prose work was also produced by such poets as Sassoon and Blunden, chiefly in the form of personal memoir. (3) In these paper we are going to be introduced briefly in Sassoon’s poetry and live and concretely in one of his War poems, “Suicide in the Trenches”. Poems written by Sassoon at the start of the First World War contrast greatly in style to his later work. Driven by anger and frustration at the conduct of the war, Sassoon developed a beautiful style in which to describe the horror and appalling nature of the ongoing conflict. Sassoon continued to stir the emotions and consciences of his countrymen long after the guns fell silent. (1)

Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon was born in 1886 in Kent. He was an English poet and author. He became known as a writer of satirical anti-war verse during World War I, but later won acclaim for his prose work. (4) With the onset of the war, and at the age of 28, Sassoon enlisted first as a cavalry trooper in the Sussex Yeomanry before transferring to the Royal Welch Fusiliers as an officer in May 1915, where he met Robert Graves. After being wounded in April 1917 Sassoon was sent back to England for recuperation. Sassoon had meanwhile developed increasingly angry feelings concerning the conduct of the war. This led him to publish, in The Times, a letter announcing his view that the war was being deliberately and unnecessarily prolonged by the authorities. Sassoon narrowly avoided punishment by courts martial via the swift assistance of Robert Graves, who convinced the military review board (with Sassoon's reluctant consent) that Sassoon was suffering from shell shock (A). Consequently Sassoon was sent to Craiglockhart military hotel to recover. It was while at Craiglockhart that

Sassoon met and struck up a friendship with Wilfred Owen. Sassoon subsequently edited and arranged publication of Owen's work after the war. (a. Shell Shock was a term used during the First World War to describe the psychological trauma suffered by men serving on the war's key battlefronts ) (5)

In addition to publishing anti-war rhetoric in The Old Huntsman (1917) and CounterAttack (1918), in which is included the poem analised later, Sassoon wrote three volumes of classic fictional autobiography loosely based upon his immediate pre-war and war experiences: Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man (1928, initially published under a pseudonym); Memoirs of an Infantry Officer (1930); and Sherston's Progress (1936). Siegfried Sassoon died in 1967. (6)

Suicide in the Trenches SUICIDE IN THE TRENCHES I knew a simple soldier boy 1 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, 5 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, 10 Sneak home and pray you’ll never know The hell where youth and laughter go (7) This poem was written by Siegfried Sassoon during his First World War military service and published in 1918 in the Counter- Attack and Other Poems’ collection. (8) As an officer in World War I, he was wounded and lauded twice with medals for bravery. His poetry—at times violent, always honest—expressed his conviction of the brutality and waste of war in grim, forceful, realistic verse. (9) His conduct in the war won him the Military Cross (an honour he later renounced) but for this essentially innocent man the squalor and misery of the trenches were as explosive as any shell and transformed his writing completely. (10)

On November 1, 1915 Sassoon suffered his first personal loss of the War. His younger brother Hamo was buried at sea after being mortally wounded at Gallipoli. Sassoon subsequently commemorated this with a poem entitled To My Brother. This and other losses upset Sassoon and he became determined to "get his revenge" on the Germans. To this end, he went out on patrol in no-man's-land even when there were no raids planned. Such reckless enthusiasm earned him the nickname "Mad Jack", but he was saved from further folly by a four-week spell at the Army School in Flixecourt. Returning to the front a month later some of Sassoon's desire for revenge had abated, and when his platoon was involved in a raid on Kiel Trench shortly afterwards, his actions in getting his dead and wounded men back to the British trenches earned him a Military Cross (11) Life in the trenches during the First World War took many forms, and varied widely from sector to sector and from front to front. Undoubtedly, it was entirely unexpected for those eager thousands who signed up for war in August 1914, included Siegfried Sassoon. (12) Soldiers had to wake up an hour before the sunrise to be ready with their weapons in case that there were an attack. This was really hard, moreover in winter, with low temperatures, so they tried to find ways to avoid these hard situations by using what they had in their hands. That is why rum and alcoholic drinks were so popular in trenches, and they were also issued to men by governments. It is also named in the poem a few problems that soldiers had when being at trenches. Those are for example lices and nits. Lots of men chose to shave their heads to avoid nits. But lices were a never-ending problem. They were breeding in the seams of filthy clothing and causing men unceasingly itches. Even when clothing was periodically washed and deloused, lice eggs remained hidden in the seams and within a few hours of the clothes being re-worn the body heat cause the eggs to hatch. Lice caused Trench Fever, a particularly painful disease that began suddenly with severe pain followed by high fever. Lice were not actually identified as the culprit of Trench Fever until 1918. Despite of those problems, they had a bigger worry, and this was death. Death was a constant companion to those serving in the line, even when no raid or attack was launched or defended against. In busy sectors the constant shellfire directed by the enemy brought random death, whether their victims were lounging in a trench or lying in a dugout (many men were buried as a consequence of such large shell-bursts). (12)

Analysis This poem talks about a soldier's suicide in the trenches during World War I. Sassoon explains the life of a simple soldier boy who was fighting in the trenches and whose life was not worth to live it. The poet expresses how the life of this soldier passes with monotony, bad conditions, loneliness, sadness… All this things can change the personality and the view of life that has even the happiest and the most optimistic person in the world. In this poem is shown how war and the trenches exasperate this soldier and change his laugh into sadness.

This poem is divided into three stanzas of four verses each one. It is a short poem, as many of Sassoon’s poems are and by reading it we can notice that he has caught the rythms and slang of the ordinary soldiers he served with while he was at trenches. (10) In the first stanza, Sassoon describes a soldier living in the trenches. He says that he does not loses his laugh although he was sad and alone while being there “Who grinned at life in empty joy,” (l.2) The second stanza shows the reader a harder view of the trenches. Here the author talks about cold winters, tiredness, nits, lack of rum, bullets… This gives the reader a darker impression of the life of the soldier in contrast with the first stanza, that starts with positive vocabulary and it is not so explicit. “In winter trenches, cowed and glum, / With crumps and lice and lack of rum,” (l.5-6). The author concludes the stanza drastically. He suddenly describes how the soldier commited suicide by shooting into his head. “He put a bullet through his brain” (l.7) and then everything ends. In the third stanza the author expresses his opinion and critisice in some way the people that is proud of the war and also of themselves and cheers when the young soldier’s body passes by them. He uses a kind of aggressive language that despise the people and avoids them to go home and pray for him and for the hell in which boys like this soldier lose their youth and joy. “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.” (l.9-12) This stanza is probably the most important of the poem because here he expresses clearly his opinion about war and it is expressed quite of impotence because of the suicide of this boy that had suffered in trenches so many charges. Moreover people while seeing what has happened just clap but they do not try to think why he has done that or what he was living there. Sassoon also shows in this stanza his anti-war feelings when he compares the war to the hell, (l.12). In this poem we are nearer to what the soldiers felt being there, because the author uses his words to describe those cold winters, poverty, lack of hygiene, fear, illnesses, loneliness, despair… This poem regain more importance and meaning if we take into account that the author has experienced this things he is talking about, and probably he has wondered many times to commit suicide like the soldier in the poem. Many soldiers commited suicide during World War I. (As a reference we know that the US suffered 57,476 fatal casualties during the war. Of these, 967 were suicides, two thirds of which were committed within the US ) (6) .

The author uses a very simple rhyme structure that is repeated during all the poem: AABB. Ex. “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.”(l. 1-4)

Conclusion The poem we have analised before makes the reader experience something similar to what the author felt when he was at war. This poem was written by a man who lived the war in first person, he was one of his protagonists. This is not poetry of metaphors and idealisations, it talks about real and hard facts that do not leave someone who read it indifferent. It is quite difficult to read a poem like this and not get moved. The feelings of Sassoon are translated into the reader instantly when you go into the poem. You travel back in time to the Great War and see yourself in this disaster. That is why War Poetry and overall anti-war poetry is so appreciated by people that have not experienced war, because it helps to understand history and to feel it. The reading of war poetry and concretely of this poem becomes of interest, as it lets us see more about what war might have been like. Especially in this case, when it is told by a person who really was there. It is still another testimony that war brings nothing to human beings but disasters, death, hate and poverty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1- BBC- Rembrance- First World War poetry http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/remembrance/poetry/wwone.shtml 25-3-07 2- Seminar Introduction http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/projects/jtap/tutorials/intro/intro.html 25-3-07 3- First World War .com – Prose & Poetry – http://www.firstworldwar.com/poetsandprose/index.htm 24-3-07 4- Siegfried Sassoon – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Sassoon 24-3-07 5- First World War .com – Encyclopedia- Shell Shock http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/shellshock.htm 24-3-07 6- First World War .com- Prose & Poetry- Siegfried Sassoon http://www.firstworldwar.com/poetsandprose/sassoon.htm 25-3-07 7- Siegfried Sassoon : Suicide in the Trenches http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/projects/jtap/tutorials/intro/sassoon/suicide.html 23-3-07 8- Suicide in the Trenches- Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_Trenches 23-3-07 9- Sassoon, Siegfried. 1918. The Old Huntsman and Other Poems http://www.bartleby.com/135/index.html 22-3-07 10- Siegfried Sassoon- Poetry Archive http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=1561 23-3-07 11- Counter- Attack : Biography of Siegfried Sassoon by Michele Fry http://www.sassoonery.demon.co.uk/ 22-3-07 12- First World War .com Feature Articles – Life in the Trenches http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/trenchlife.htm 23-3-07 OTHER SOURCES: - www.uv.es/fores - http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/c006/14217/c07c006a14217gA/wpslim/display/19643781/19651324.wimpy -