person1910s-1967

Siegfried Sassoon

Disciplines:

Summary

British poet who wrote the most biting anti-war poetry of WWI and issued a public protest declaration against the continuation of the war — an act of extraordinary courage.

Core Contribution

WWI protest poetry: Sassoon's poems are direct, ironic, and savage — attacking the home front's complacency and the generals' incompetence with a bitterness unlike the lyrical melancholy of Owen. Finished with the War: A Soldier's Declaration (1917): a public statement that the war was being needlessly prolonged — issued while in active service, which should have meant a court-martial. His friends arranged for him to be certified as shell-shocked instead. Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man and Memoirs of an Infantry Officer: autobiographical novels.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Recommended Wilfred Owen to his editor — without Sassoon, Owen's poems might not have been published. Sassoon effectively launched Owen's posthumous career.
His public anti-war declaration was one of the most remarkable acts of protest in WWI — issued while in active service, it was read out in Parliament. His friends (Robert Graves, etc.) arranged for him to be diagnosed as shell-shocked to avoid court-martial.

Notable Works & Achievements

The Old Huntsman

Counter-Attack

Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man

Memoirs of an Infantry Officer

Historical Influences

Thomas Hardy

Intellectual Lineage

British Poetry WWI Literature

Contemporaries & Peers

Wilfred Owen Robert Graves

Minds Influenced

Wilfred Owen War Poetry

Intellectual Posterity

War Poetry Anti-War Literature

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