Concetti Chiave
- Siegfried Sassoon was a prominent poet of the First World War, known for depicting the horrors and futility of trench warfare.
- His poetry vividly expressed the brutality and inhumanity of war as senseless slaughter, impacting him mentally long after his physical wounds healed.
- "Suicide in the Trenches," written in 1917, highlights a young soldier's tragic journey from innocence to despair amidst the harsh conditions of war.
- The poem criticizes society's ignorance, contrasting public support of soldiers with their lack of understanding of the war's true horrors.
- Sassoon's work emphasizes the forgotten sacrifices of soldiers, portraying death as a preferable escape from the relentless nightmare of war.
Indice
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Sassoon in 1886 and he become one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry described the horror and brutality of trench, human feelings and emotions, the futility of the war and its blind cruelty. He expressed the inhumanity of war in his poems as a senseless butchery. Sassoon was soon selected to be an officer and, at war, he was wounded twice and also contracted a fever.
He recovered from the gunshot wound but the war’s mental damage lasted because nightmares and memories was hard t shake off.
Poesia
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 cramps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
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
Suicide in the trenches is a poem written in 1917 by Sassoon. This poem talks about a young soldier, whose smile was joyless because of the war. He expressed his youth during the morning and we understand it through whistling without any fear. He spends his days in the trenches full of mice, weapons, lice and mud. Trenches was a war ditch for defense, where the soldiers stood and fought. The phrase “No one spoke of him again” represents an unknown soldier because war causes many deaths and so the soldiers are forgotten. Death was seen as the only way to escape preferable to the hell of war. In the last stanza, Sassoon is accusing the crowd that don’t really understand what war and pain is because people celebrate the march of soldiers and doesn’t know in that hell ends up youth and hope.
Domande da interrogazione
- Chi era Siegfried Sassoon e quale ruolo ha avuto durante la Prima Guerra Mondiale?
- Qual è il tema principale della poesia "Suicide in the Trenches"?
- Come viene rappresentata la guerra nelle poesie di Sassoon?
Siegfried Sassoon è stato uno dei principali poeti della Prima Guerra Mondiale, noto per descrivere l'orrore e la brutalità delle trincee, i sentimenti umani e l'inutilità della guerra.
La poesia "Suicide in the Trenches" tratta della disperazione di un giovane soldato che, sopraffatto dalle condizioni di guerra, trova nella morte l'unica via di fuga, mentre critica la folla che ignora la vera natura della guerra.
Nelle poesie di Sassoon, la guerra è rappresentata come un massacro insensato e disumano, che lascia cicatrici mentali durature sui soldati, come incubi e ricordi difficili da dimenticare.
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