Sassoon’s war poems 23rd September 09
Siegfried Sassoon was an anti war poet from the first world war, he wrote many poems expressing the way he felt about the war and the effects it had on him and other members of his platoon. The poems that I have read by Sassoon are, “Banishment” and “The Redeemer” both poems are anti war and I am going to write a summary of both poems and in which ways they are similar.
“Banishment” is a poem written by Sassoon while he was locked up in Craiglockheart Hospital as a temporarily insane patient. The poem is about the men that he had left behind unwillingly on the battlefield waiting to die. Sassoon uses the poem effectively to get his anti war message across to the readers and the public to let them know just how bad war really is. Sassoon does this by use of word choice and expressions.
In the first Stanza Sassoon uses expressions such as “Shoulder to aching shoulder, side by side” this shows how the men are standing by each other although they are weary and tired, it shows the companionship between the men and the love they have for one another. Sassoon goes on to say that their wrongs were his, this shows how guilty he feels for leaving them stranded on the battlefield while he was kept safely away from any physical harm. The first stanza shows the strong feelings which Sassoon has for his men and for the war in general. These feelings are continued into the second stanza where he comments on the judgments of the higher ranking officers. The first line of the second stanza reads “To those who sent them out into the night” this is referring to the commanders who ordered the men and young boys to go over the top (out of the pit) and onto the battlefield. It says that they were “sent out into the night”, this could also mean that they were being sent out to darkness, unaware of what was going to happen next and unaware of why they were really doing, it except from...