Siegfried Sassoon

Suicide in the Trenches

I knew a simple soldier boy

Naive soldier's joy

Note the contrast between 'grinned at life' and the brutal reality of war. This initial lightness makes the later tragedy more devastating.

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,

Trench conditions revealed

Specific details of misery: 'crumps' (artillery shells), lice, and lack of alcohol show the soldiers' daily degradation.

He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
*****

Accusatory final stanza

Direct address to civilian audience. Sassoon indicts those who romanticize war without understanding its true horror.

You snug-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.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

War's Psychological Destruction

Suicide in the Trenches exposes the mental trauma of World War I soldiers through a brutally stark narrative. The poem's simple language mirrors the soldier's stripped-down existence, where survival becomes an impossible burden.

Sassoon, a decorated soldier-poet, witnessed firsthand the psychological devastation of trench warfare. This poem reveals how institutional violence destroys individual humanity, reducing young men to disposable statistics.

Poetic Critique of War Propaganda

The final stanza is a savage indictment of civilian attitudes toward war. Sassoon directly challenges the romanticized, heroic narrative by contrasting the 'cheering' home crowds with the brutal reality soldiers experience.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT During World War I, propaganda often portrayed soldiers as heroic and enthusiastic. Sassoon, who was court-martialed for his anti-war stance, used poetry to expose this dangerous mythmaking.