This new edition of poems draws from poems published during and shortly after the First World War by Siegfried Sassoon. Also included are several early poems showing his early naïve ignorance of the terrible reality of war, prior to the death of his brother in 1915 and his experiences at the front, and later Sassoon's A Soldier's Declaration, which marks his break with the military authorities. Such was the uproar caused by his statement, which was read aloud in parliament and published in The Times in 1917, that he was afterwards diagnosed with shell shock and incarcerated in a hospital, where he continued to write and met Wilfred Owen. Poems included in this edition are:AbsolutionA Letter HomeThe HeroThe Poet as HeroThe GeneralAttackCounter-AttackThe Rear-GuardWirersThe Humbled HeartPrelude: The TroopsDreamersHow to dieThe EffectA Soldier's DeclarationThe FathersLamentationsSuicide in the trenchesDoes it matter?Fight to a finishEditorial ImpressionGlory of womenTheir frailtyThe Hawthorn TreeThe InvestitureTrench DutyBreak of dayTo any dead officerSick leaveBanishmentSong-books of the warThrushesAutumnInvocationRepression of war experienceThe TriumphJoy BellsRemorseDead MusiciansThe DreamIn BarracksConscriptsTogetherSurvivorsEveryone SangThe book also includes a new introduction by Kenneth Grant introducing the reader to Sassoon's world and tracing the progress of his poetry from naive patriotism on the eve of war to something darker.
The General and Other Poems : First World War Poetry by Siegfried Sassoon