Siegfried Sassoon and poets of the Great War

[mdvanlaan]

If you like Siegfried Sassoon, check out the band (The Sassoons) :D

[JosephChapman95]

"Suicide in The Trenches" is my favourite of Sassoon's poems.

[Voivode]

What utter non-sense that American mumbles. The 30 Years War, the Napoleonic Wars - wars fought one on one with dignity? Bollocks!

[onlyindreams001]

@Voivode Well what's new for an american? lol.

[TheTubeMouse]

I think the comment at 2.38 is interesting given the fact that dead soldiers were occasionally found with a copy of the Illiad in their pocket. Prose works from the time such as Vera Brittain's 'Testament of Youth' are also well worth reading to get an insight to the mindset of the period.

[clydewell]

@TheTubeMouse Do you know reading 'Testament of Youth' I found her a pretty selfish person in a way. Perhaps I read it wrong.

[TheTubeMouse]

@clydewell No, I don't think you read it wrongly at all. Initially, she was selfish but it was the selfishness of youth where she was taken up wholly with her ambitions to go to Oxford. That lack of awareness was not unique; many thought it would 'all be over by Christmas'. Better understanding produced unselfishness later, in her work as a VAD and her offer to marry Victor. Afterwards, she became a tireless campaigner for pacifism. Her daughter noticed that Vera never laughed unreservedly.

[clydewell]

@TheTubeMouse Do you know reading 'Testament of Youth' I found her a pretty selfish person in a way. Perhaps I read it wrong.

[cantbangel]

WW! war poets esp wilfred owen, these men saw the whole world change and reported on it immediately. art history.

[chofaigh]

'does it matter' is my all time fave war poem

[CULAVE]

What the speaker said about civilians isn't strictly true. On the Western Front military fastalities were certainly much higher. But on the Eastern Front and Balkan Theatre, civilian fatalities were actually higher due to the many massacres taking place there. Therefore for the Great War as a whole, military and civilian fatalties were roughly equal.

[ColdChicago]

in flanders fields row on row

the dead lie proof of woe

in flanders fields where all was said

the war cradles its endless dead