SIEGFRIED SASSOON (1886-1967)
LIFE
born from a wealthy Jewish family
joined the war in 1915
he expressed his bitter opinions on war with irony in his works
he protested publicly against the war in 1917 in the House of Commons
saved from being court-martialled by the poet Robert Graves, who convinced all that Sassoon was suffering from shell shock
sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh, where he met Wilfred Owen
COLLECTION OF POEMS
The Old Huntsman (1917)
Counter-Attack (1918)
denounced the political errors leading to war in several ways:
documentary manner
satire
Glory of Women
he got involved in politics with the Labour Party as a resolute pacifist
in 1957 he became a Roman Catholic
written at hospital
you love us when we're heroes, home on leave,
or wounded in a mentionable place. [...] You can't believe that British troops 'retire' [...]
trampling the terrible corpses - blind with blood
Suicide in the trenches