Suicide in the trenches

SUICIDE IN THE TRENCHES

By Siegfried Sassoon

I knew a simple soldier boy 

Who grinned at life in empty joy, 

Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, 

And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum, 

With crumps and lice and lack of rum, 

He put a bullet through his brain. 

No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye 

Who cheer when soldier lads march by, 

Sneak home and pray you'll never know 

The hell where youth and laughter go.

In this poem, Siegfried Sassoon emphasizes the precious life that is being wasted and forgotten in war. He creates the image of a young soldier boy, a normal boy with hopes and dreams, with an appreciation for life and peace - his world was not corrupted in any way. As the poem continues it contradicts this idea - as the boy commits suicide in the trenches. It comes to show just how horrifying the conditions must have been for a happy young man to do such a thing. War is so horrific that it has forced him to destroy his own life. There is a mention of how the boy is forgotten after he shoots himself, meaning nobody wants to be reminded of just how terrible war can effect people. In the final paragraph Sassoon mentions the shame people should feel for sending these content young men to war, totally destroying everything they are and ever will be. It transmits the message that people cannot imagine the horrors that war presents and don´t care about the precious life which is so carelessly destroyed. War is not meant to be glorified, but shamed. In terms of poetic techniques, the poet uses alliteration: "Slept soundly", rhyme: " i knew a simple soldier boy who grinned at life in empty joy" , very descriptive language: "With crumps and lice and lack of rum" and metaphors like: " The hell where youth and laughter go" when he compares war to hell.