grgr4 Proof of the pudding (was Re: GRGR(4): Episode 12

[rj]

Attack

At dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun
In the wild purple of the glow'ring sun,
Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud
The menacing scarred slope; and, one by one,
Tanks creep and topple forward to the wire.
The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowed
With bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear,
Men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire.
Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,
They leave their trenches, going over the top,
While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists,
And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists,
Flounders in mud. O Jesus, make it stop!

Siegfried Sassoon

Excerpts from his war diaries (perhaps the autobiog. jbf mentioned), as
well as info and other poems is at:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jsassoon.htm

A controversial poem is discussed and printed here:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/8054/hero.html

More poems and info here:
http://info.ox.ac.uk/jtap/tutorials/intro/sassoon/#top

This, from the last-mentioned site, seems particularly apposite to
grgr4:

       Survivors

       No doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain
       Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
       Of course they're 'longing to go out again,' —
       These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.
       They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed
       Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,—
       Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud
       Of glorious war that shatter'd all their pride...
       Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;
       Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.

       Craiglockhart Hospital, Edinburgh. October, 1917.

best