Declaration Against The War Analysis Siegfried Sassoon (7/11/14)

Siegfried Sassoon
Declaration Against The War

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this War, on which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purpose for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation. I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. On behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is being practised on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the contrivance of agonies which they do not, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize.


The whole letter is Sassoon's opinion, not actual solid facts but he makes his opinions sound like facts by saying "I have seen" for example. So people are persuaded to believe that they are facts even though he starts sentences with words like "I believe" on numerous times.
There is also the repetition of personal pronouns "I"  even though he is speaking on behalf of all of the soldiers because they don't feel like they can stand up for their opinions. "I am a soldier" he is the voice of the collective soldiers.
The word "suffering" is repeated a lot throughout the letter to show that the soldiers suffering was continuous and on-going.
Sassoon uses emotive language, for example "I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops." This is to persuade the readers that war was a terrible thing, and Sassoon's opinions were believable and honest because he actually experienced the war.
An example of alliteration in the letter is "callous complacency." The words sound very harsh together which represents the war.
Even though Sassoon was an atheist he uses phrases like "unjust" which can be seen as being quite religious. 

Aftermath War Poem Analysis (5/11/14)

Aftermath

Siegfried Sassoon.

The words "have you forgotten yet?"  are repeated throughout the poem. This is not only a rhetorical question but emphasises that fact that war was so hard not to forget because of the massive impact it had on people. 

"Like clouds in the lit heavens of life" in line 5 of the poem, juxtaposes war because war is mainly about death, not "life." It is also a similie. 

Stanza 2 of the poem is more about the reality of war and the conditions. For example, "Do you remember the rats; and the stench

Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench." shows the soldiers had to live in these awful conditions and see some horrible things. "and the stench/of corpses rotting" is enjambment. This is used to emphasise that the smell was bad, but it was even worse because it was the rotting of human corpses in front of the soldiers. 

Also in the second stanza, Sassoon uses pathetic fallacy as well as personification. "and chill with a hopeless rain" creates a sad and useless atmosphere.

"Is it all going to happen again?" is ironic because not long after the poem was written (1919) World War 2 began.

In stanza 3, the line "as you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men" can be seen as foreshadowing because "doomed" shows the end will most likely be bad for the soldiers; them dying. The final line in the third stanza "masks of the lads who were once keen and kind and gay" indicates war was not what people first thought it would be like. It wasn't all about fighting and bravery.

In conclusion, Sassoon wants the reader not to forget about the war (hence the repetition of "have you forgotten yet?") because it was so tragic and people need to remember lives that were lost in World War 1.