When was attack by siegfried sassoon written

These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Attack was first published in by Siegfried Sassoon in his collection of poems entitled Counter-Attack and Other Poems.

The poem takes a realistic and horrifyingly honest look at what happens when troops are given the order to go out of the trenches into enemy fire, resulting in an almost imperceptible gain in territory but an absolutely devastating loss of life.

In stark contrast to other poems, such as those penned by Rupert Brooke, and also in contrast to the jingoistic encouragement to war expounded by the British government and military generals, the poem tells the story of an advance out of the trenches from the perspective of the soldiers experiencing it, a first hand description of the carnage, and not a romanticized one. Like the other poems in the anthology, Attack was written by Sassoon as he became increasingly angry about the war, its true purpose and its merits.

He went to Cambridge but apparently spent most of the one year he was there hunting, playing golf and reading and writing poetry. He showed enormous promise as a writer and published privately his first collection in A further nine pamphlets appeared before the outbreak of war in Temporarily invalided back to England he became increasingly disillusioned with the war and the appalling loss of lives. He wrote a declaration against the war and called for a negotiated peace risking court martial but his commanding officers sent him to Craiglockhart War Hospital where he met and influenced Wilfred Owen.

Sassoon survived the war, continued to write and published a semi-autobiographical trilogy in the s sustained by his strong religious faith.

In Sassoon received a C. Back Why register? We're not interested in your data You can use most of our website without any need to register. Log in Register. Contact Twitter. Advanced search X. Register For Poetry By Heart news, resources and competitions. He continued to write both prose and poetry. In , he was received into the Catholic church. He died on 1 September Source: BBC. Poetry Foundation. War Poets Association. Poetry Archive. The first few lines of the poem seemingly praise the beauty of nature, yet if the reader draws their attention to the adjectives used to describe the elements of nature in the poem, one finds that everything is not as it seems.

It might also mean that the bodies of fallen soldiers lay strewn all over the battlefield, given how one might interpret it. Indeed, it seems that as though nature itself has been thrown out of balance as a result of war. The colour purple also represents power, nobility, ambition and extravagance. The poet uses this symbolic colour to point out the fact that it was indeed these traits that doomed the soldiers as well as the broken perception that war was an honourable act. The poet soon reveals the root cause of all this destruction — tanks.

The author creates suspense and a hint of tension as the reader awaits the fate of the tanks, whose advance towards the wired defences seems inevitable and unstoppable. Sibilance is used extensively throughout the third and fourth line to highlight the destruction at the front.

The usage of imagery highlights this destruction by focusing on the smoke, using sibilance to perhaps mimic the hissing sounds of dying embers. The short sentence in line six jolts the reader back to the reality of war with a suggestion of fear. Indeed the usage of onomatopoeia captures the deafening sound of artillery fire bombarding the enemy trench in preparation for the men going over the top provides a stark contrast with the previous line.

The audible quality to this imagery reinforces the frenetic energy and panic the men must have experienced. Indeed, this creates pity and horror as the reader is forced to come to terms with the fact that these men will most certainly perish for no reason at all. Indeed, Sassoon strips away any illusions of gallantry with the ninth line, where the fear of the men is revealed in its entirety.

Hope is personified to link the death of hope with the death of the soldiers. Emphasises the dark sinister glow of the sun, which is usually associated with joy and happiness, has taken on a darker relevance in the face of war.

Emphasises the destruction of the natural landscape, most likely in the form of craters as a result of artillery fire. These three sections gradually change in tone to emphasise the effects of war. Furthermore, the usage of only one verse gives the descriptions greater intensity. This shows continuity via the usage of the present tense as readers can relive the events taking place at the battlefield vividly.