Description:
Siegfried Sassoon, who lived through World War One and who died in 1967, was, as the introduction to this book tells us, irritated in his later years at always being thought of as a “war poet”. Understandable perhaps from the point of view of the poet: readers on the other hand might wish to demur. The poems gathered here and chronologically ordered, thereby tracing the course of the war, are an extraordinary testimony to the almost unimaginable experiences of a combatant in that bitter conflict. Moving from the patriotic optimism of the first few poems (” … fighting for our freedom, we are free”) to the anguish and anger of the later work (where “hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists Flounders in mud … “), there comes a point when the reality of trench-warfare and its aftershocks move beyond comprehension: Sassoon knows this, and it becomes a powerful element in his art. As a book, the images have a cumulative relentlessness that make it almost impossible to read more than a few poems in one sitting. Unlike the avant-garde experiments developing in Europe in the first decades of this century, Sassoon’s verse is formally conservative–but this was perhaps necessary, for as one reads the poems, one feels that the form, the classically inflected tropes, the metre and rhyme, apart from ironising the rhetoric of glory and battle were necessary techniques for containing the emotion (and indeed, a tone of barely controlled irony may have been the only means by which these angry observations would have been considered publishable at the time). When Sassoon’s line begins to fragment, as it does in several of the later poems, it is under the extreme pressure to express the inexpressible. Compassion and sympathy are omnipresent here, in their full etymological sense of suffering with or alongside others–something the higher echelons of command (those ” … old men who died Slow, natural deaths–old men with ugly souls”) were never able or willing to contemplate. But Sassoon intuited the future of warfare, could sense that this was not “the war to end all wars”: the mock-religious invocation of the final poem prefigures the vicious euphemisms of more recent conflicts: “Grant us the power to prove, by poison gases, The needlessness of shedding human blood.” Sassoon’s bile-black irony signals a deep-felt pessimism: it was with good reason. –Burhan Tufail
ebook img

The War Poems PDF

164 Pages·0.68359375 MB·English
by  Siegfried Sassoon
#Politics #Poetry #Fiction #Literature #War #Classics #20th Century #World War I #British Literature #Military Fiction #European Literature
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download

Download The War Poems PDF Free - Full Version

by Siegfried Sassoon| 164 pages| 0.68359375| English

Download The War Poems by Siegfried Sassoon in PDF format completely FREE. No registration required, no payment needed. Get instant access to this valuable resource on PDFdrive.to!

Free Download PDF

About The War Poems

Siegfried Sassoon, who lived through World War One and who died in 1967, was, as the introduction to this book tells us, irritated in his later years at always being thought of as a “war poet”. Understandable perhaps from the point of view of the poet: readers on the other hand might wish to demur. The poems gathered here and chronologically ordered, thereby tracing the course of the war, are an extraordinary testimony to the almost unimaginable experiences of a combatant in that bitter conflict. Moving from the patriotic optimism of the first few poems (” … fighting for our freedom, we are free”) to the anguish and anger of the later work (where “hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists Flounders in mud … “), there comes a point when the reality of trench-warfare and its aftershocks move beyond comprehension: Sassoon knows this, and it becomes a powerful element in his art. As a book, the images have a cumulative relentlessness that make it almost impossible to read more than a few poems in one sitting. Unlike the avant-garde experiments developing in Europe in the first decades of this century, Sassoon’s verse is formally conservative–but this was perhaps necessary, for as one reads the poems, one feels that the form, the classically inflected tropes, the metre and rhyme, apart from ironising the rhetoric of glory and battle were necessary techniques for containing the emotion (and indeed, a tone of barely controlled irony may have been the only means by which these angry observations would have been considered publishable at the time). When Sassoon’s line begins to fragment, as it does in several of the later poems, it is under the extreme pressure to express the inexpressible. Compassion and sympathy are omnipresent here, in their full etymological sense of suffering with or alongside others–something the higher echelons of command (those ” … old men who died Slow, natural deaths–old men with ugly souls”) were never able or willing to contemplate. But Sassoon intuited the future of warfare, could sense that this was not “the war to end all wars”: the mock-religious invocation of the final poem prefigures the vicious euphemisms of more recent conflicts: “Grant us the power to prove, by poison gases, The needlessness of shedding human blood.” Sassoon’s bile-black irony signals a deep-felt pessimism: it was with good reason. –Burhan Tufail

Detailed Information

Author:Siegfried Sassoon
ISBN:9780571202652
Pages:164
Language:English
File Size:0.68359375
Format:PDF
Price:FREE
Download Free PDF

Safe & Secure Download - No registration required

Why Choose PDFdrive for Your Free The War Poems Download?

  • 100% Free: No hidden fees or subscriptions required for one book every day.
  • No Registration: Immediate access is available without creating accounts for one book every day.
  • Safe and Secure: Clean downloads without malware or viruses
  • Multiple Formats: PDF, MOBI, Mpub,... optimized for all devices
  • Educational Resource: Supporting knowledge sharing and learning

Free Books Similar to The War Poems

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it really free to download The War Poems PDF?

Yes, on https://PDFdrive.to you can download The War Poems by Siegfried Sassoon completely free. We don't require any payment, subscription, or registration to access this PDF file. For 3 books every day.

How can I read The War Poems on my mobile device?

After downloading The War Poems PDF, you can open it with any PDF reader app on your phone or tablet. We recommend using Adobe Acrobat Reader, Apple Books, or Google Play Books for the best reading experience.

Is this the full version of The War Poems?

Yes, this is the complete PDF version of The War Poems by Siegfried Sassoon. You will be able to read the entire content as in the printed version without missing any pages.

Is it legal to download The War Poems PDF for free?

https://PDFdrive.to provides links to free educational resources available online. We do not store any files on our servers. Please be aware of copyright laws in your country before downloading.

The materials shared are intended for research, educational, and personal use in accordance with fair use principles.

We use cookies

We use cookies to ensure you get the best browsing experience on our website. By clicking "Accept Cookies", you agree that we can store cookies on your device in accordance with our Terms and Privacy.