or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
16 used & new from £6.94

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon
 
 

The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon (Paperback)

by Siegfried Sassoon (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
RRP: £15.99
Price: £13.59 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.40 (15%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Thursday, February 11? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
12 new from £6.94 4 used from £8.69

Frequently Bought Together

The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon + The Poems of Wilfred Owen (Wordsworth Poetry) (Wordsworth Poetry Library) + Birdsong
Total RRP: £27.97
Price For All Three: £21.51

Show availability and delivery details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Product details

  • Paperback: 94 pages
  • Publisher: BiblioBazaar, LLC (13 July 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1434638367
  • ISBN-13: 978-1434638366
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,229,513 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Sassoon, who lived through Word War One and who died in 1967, was, as the introduction to this book tells us, irritated in his later years at always being thought of as a "war poet". Understandable perhaps from the point of view of the poet: readers on the other hand might wish to demur. The poems gathered here and chronologically ordered, thereby tracing the course of the war, are an extraordinary testimony to the almost unimaginable experiences of a combatant in that bitter conflict. Moving from the patriotic optimism of the first few poems (" ... fighting for our freedom, we are free") to the anguish and anger of the later work (where "hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists / Flounders in mud ... "), there comes a point when the reality of trench-warfare and its aftershocks move beyond comprehension: Sassoon knows this, and it becomes a powerful element in his art. As a book, the images have a cumulative relentlessness that make it almost impossible to read more than a few poems in one sitting.

Unlike the avant-garde experiments developing in Europe in the first decades of this century, Sassoon's verse is formally conservative--but this was perhaps necessary, for as one reads the poems, one feels that the form, the classically inflected tropes, the metre and rhyme, apart from ironising the rhetoric of glory and battle were necessary techniques for containing the emotion (and indeed, a tone of barely controlled irony may have been the only means by which these angry observations would have been considered publishable at the time). When Sassoon's line begins to fragment, as it does in several of the later poems, it is under the extreme pressure to express the inexpressible. Compassion and sympathy are omnipresent here, in their full etymological sense of suffering with or alongside others--something the higher echelons of command (those " ... old men who died / Slow, natural deaths--old men with ugly souls") were never able or willing to contemplate. But Sassoon intuited the future of warfare, could sense that this was not "the war to end all wars": the mock-religious invocation of the final poem prefigures the vicious euphemisms of more recent conflicts: "Grant us the power to prove, by poison gases, / The needlessness of shedding human blood." Sassoon's bile-black irony signals a deep-felt pessimism: it was with good reason. --Burhan Tufail --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


Inside This Book (Learn More)
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?


 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A must Read , 3 Sep 2007
By N. Donagher (Co. Kildare, Rep of Ireland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The War Poems (Paperback)
I did not care for the items we had to read at school that is until I came across Siegfried Sassoon. He explains clearly with passion and experance what WAR truely is. In an age of mass media and what appears to be new wars every other day, he so the true cost of war not in pound or dollors.
To read his work even one at two of his poems will show you the horrors of war better than any Hollywood movie.
Reading his work is like talking to the man, and he has given you excess to every private though in him . He is a true great.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Many parallels to modern day, 7 Nov 2009
This review is from: The War Poems (Paperback)
I enjoyed reading this book, despite not generally reading much poetry unless forced. I also liked the footnotes which gave brief autobiographical notes, giving an insight into the timing and mood of the author.

What particulary stood out for me was the parallels to the modern experience of soldiers and attitudes to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not only did the poems tell of the true horrors of war, they also reflected the cold indifference and misunderstanding of civilians back home. My favorite is "Hero" which encapsulates a number of these themes.

I think it a good book - the 4 stars reflects only that, in this genre, I prefer Owen and Brooke.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The War Poems - Siegfried Sassoon, 25 Mar 2009
By G. LITTLE - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The War Poems (Paperback)
Sassoon's war poems from WW1 through to the 1930's. Includes dates & some short footnotes based on original publication information or the authors papers and manuscripts. An adequate low cost collection for the enthusiast or student of Siegfried Sassoon's war poetry.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars the war poems
the horrors of ww1 as seen thru the poems of siegfried sassoon. also recommended for reading are the poems of wilfred owen.
Published 1 month ago by road nomad

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favourite War Poet
Siegfried Sassoon was a gentleman of leisure who wanted to be a poet, and indeed he did have a limited success before the outbreak of World War 1. Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Dowden

3.0 out of 5 stars good for exams(GCSEs)
this book gave an understanding of Sassoon it helped me a lot as i was doing about him for my GSCE coursework, on war poetry
Published on 23 Jan 2000

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 

   


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.