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Siegfried Sassoon. The Hero. Before you read Siegfried Sassoon’s poem ‘The Hero’, it helps to know some background information. Read the next few slides. Historical Context.
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Before you read Siegfried Sassoon’s poem ‘The Hero’, it helps to know some background information. Read the next few slides
Historical Context World War One took place between 1914 and 1918 and is remembered particularly for trench warfare, the use of gas and the appalling and senseless slaughter of millions of young men. Siegfried Sassoon was a brave officer who won the Military Cross for courage yet he hated the mass slaughter that he witnessed and the misconduct of the generals and politicians who engineered the British war effort. His protest took two forms: his statement against the war which appeared in The Times and his war poems. In June 1917, in Liverpool, he ripped the Military Cross ribbon from his uniform and threw it into the River Mersey. He could have been court-martialled and shot for this but was instead declared shell-shocked and sent to a hospital for injured soldiers in Edinburgh. In 1918 he returned to the war and was shot and wounded by one of his own men however Sassoon survived and lived until 1967.
Sassoon’s Protest In 1917 Sassoon refused to return to the fighting and issued the following statement to his commanding officer and the press. ‘I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them and that had this been done the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.’
Sassoon’s Protest ‘I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops and I can no longer be a party to prolonging these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. On behalf of those who are suffering now, I make this protest against the deception which is being practised upon them; also I believe it may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share and which they have not enough imagination to realise.’
Word Association Look at the title of the poem – ‘The Hero’. Write down a list of words that you associate with the idea of a hero. In the poem ‘The Hero’ Sassoon writes about a soldier who has been killed in the war. Thinking about the title, what do you imagine the poem to be about?
The Hero 'Jack fell as he'd have wished,' the Mother said,And folded up the letter that she'd read. 'The Colonel writes so nicely.' Something brokeIn the tired voice that quavered to a choke.She half looked up. 'We mothers are so proudOf our dead soldiers.' Then her face was bowed.Quietly the Brother Officer went out.He'd told the poor old dear some gallant liesThat she would nourish all her days, no doubt.For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyesHad shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,Because he'd been so brave, her glorious boy.
He thought how 'Jack', cold-footed, useless swine,Had panicked down the trench that night the mineWent up at Wicked Corner; how he'd tried To get sent home, and how, at last, he died,Blown to small bits. And no one seemed to care Except that lonely woman with white hair. Siegfried Sassoon
What do you think the poem is about? Be ready to explain what you think in class.
