‘I Hate War as Only a Soldier Who Has Live It Can, Only as One Who Has Seen Its Brutality, Its Futility, Its Stupidity'
‘I hate war as only a soldier who has live it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity'
Through a critical commentary, explore your chosen poet's portrayal of the brutality and futility of war in the Twentieth Century. How typical is the poem of the other poetry that you have read from the Penguin book of First World War poetry in terms of these themes'
In Counter-Attack, Siegfried Sassoon vividly conveys the brutality of war and the tragic experience that soldiers are obligated to face despite their futile attempts in preparing for this attack. Through the manipulation of many literary devices, Sassoon successfully enhances his brutal exposition in the front line enduring a futile display of young deaths.
Counter Attack focuses on the physical corruption of the human body, describing the bloodshed, horror and brutality of war with painstaking detail. The reference to ‘blinking eyes’, men being ‘thirsty’ and ‘unshaved’, followed by description of the ‘clink of shovel’ and stench of a place ‘rotten with dead’ provides vivid sensory details that create a full image of war. By using all five senses in harmony, Sassoon is able to describe the toil and struggles of the soldiers and the brutal toll that war takes on the human body. Similarly in ‘The rank stench of those bodies haunts me still’ the poet describes a soldier to have
‘one arm flung out, as when he crumpled up; his sturdy legs were bent beneath his trunk’.
The description of the body is grotesque, which highlights not only the lack of value placed on human life during the war, but also the brutal way in which death was treated. In Counter Attack, Sassoon follows by revealing men with ‘naked sodden buttocks’; an image that is otherwise humiliating is stated in such an apathetic way in order to underline the brutality and disregard for the respect of the body.
Sassoon makes reference to animals to convey a more convincing imagery of the men in the front line,
Through a critical commentary, explore your chosen poet's portrayal of the brutality and futility of war in the Twentieth Century. How typical is the poem of the other poetry that you have read from the Penguin book of First World War poetry in terms of these themes'
In Counter-Attack, Siegfried Sassoon vividly conveys the brutality of war and the tragic experience that soldiers are obligated to face despite their futile attempts in preparing for this attack. Through the manipulation of many literary devices, Sassoon successfully enhances his brutal exposition in the front line enduring a futile display of young deaths.
Counter Attack focuses on the physical corruption of the human body, describing the bloodshed, horror and brutality of war with painstaking detail. The reference to ‘blinking eyes’, men being ‘thirsty’ and ‘unshaved’, followed by description of the ‘clink of shovel’ and stench of a place ‘rotten with dead’ provides vivid sensory details that create a full image of war. By using all five senses in harmony, Sassoon is able to describe the toil and struggles of the soldiers and the brutal toll that war takes on the human body. Similarly in ‘The rank stench of those bodies haunts me still’ the poet describes a soldier to have
‘one arm flung out, as when he crumpled up; his sturdy legs were bent beneath his trunk’.
The description of the body is grotesque, which highlights not only the lack of value placed on human life during the war, but also the brutal way in which death was treated. In Counter Attack, Sassoon follows by revealing men with ‘naked sodden buttocks’; an image that is otherwise humiliating is stated in such an apathetic way in order to underline the brutality and disregard for the respect of the body.
Sassoon makes reference to animals to convey a more convincing imagery of the men in the front line,