Wirers

"Survivors" by Siegfried Sassoon (1918)

This poem was written in October 1917 while Sassoon was in the convalescent home in Craiglockhart. Sassoon intersperses his own bitter voice with that of someone who refuses to recognize how badly damaged the shell-shocked soldiers are. They will soon get better, the speaker says, and they are longing to be off again to rejoin the “glorious war.” The final lines present Sassoon’s voice in a powerful ending that is typical of his war poems: “Men who went out to battle, grim and glad; / Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.”

"Suicide in the Trenches" by Siegfried Sassoon (1918)

In three quatrains, this poem describes how a young soldier who used to be full of joy could not adjust to the harsh life in the trenches of WWI and shot himself in the head. In the final quatrain, Sassoon turns his anger on the people at home in England, who cheer with delight when they see a parade of soldiers passing by. He tells them to “sneak home” and prays that they will never know “The hell where youth and laughter go.”

"The Silent One" by Ivor Gurney (1917)

During WWI, many soldiers met their deaths when trapped by the barbed wire set up between two sets of trenches. In this poem, Gurney writes of his comrade and friend who died in such a way. He further relates his own experience at the front. An officer suggests there is a hole in the wire through which he might crawl, but he knows there is not and declines. Instead, he lies flat as the enemy continues its barrage and thinks of music. Then there is a retreat, followed by another advance, in which he again comes face to face with the impenetrable wire.