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Siegfried Sassoon #1
Siegfried Sassoon: the Making of a War Poet: A Biography
Siegfried Sassoon. The Making of a War Poet : A Biography 1886 - 1918
320 pages, Hardcover
First published May 21, 1998
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About the author
Jean Moorcroft Wilson
23 books3 followersJean Moorcroft Wilson is a lecturer in English at Birkbeck, University of London.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 10, 2022
Despite a 4.5-star rating, this is quite a difficult review to write – I’m all over the place with it.
Some context will help me get my thoughts together =
A few years ago, whilst researching musicians and composers who fought, and in many cases died, in the Great War, a friend loaned me a book on English war poets. When I opened it up, it fell upon a poem by Siegfried Sassoon – ‘Reconciliation’. I admit, I ignored the other poems. When I read ‘Reconciliation’, it spoke about both sides, and talked about German mothers and German soldiers, I needed to research this poet further
I’m not a big poetry fan, and I’m certainly unfamiliar with war poems, but with many things in life, coincidences and circumstances take us into places we don’t usually venture.
Yes, ‘Reconciliation’ struck a resounding chord with me. It was good to see where it appeared in the trajectory of Sassoon’s war.
Not long ago, another friend cited the Sassoon poem, ‘Glory of Women’ –
‘Trampling the terrible corpses – blind with blood.
O German mother dreaming by the fire,
While you are knitting socks to send to your son
His face is trodden deeper in the mud’
She accompanied me to see the film ‘Benediction’, a powerful portrayal of Sassoon’s life and loves – of course, all crammed into a movie, therefore I needed to know more.
I downloaded this biography and learned more about Sassoon than I expected. At times, just too much (if that makes sense?) and, half way through, took a break.
When I returned, with fresh eyes, I accepted biographies often have their limitations. In this case, not in content (it is very detailed, a warning!), but Sassoon remains an enigma to me, a somewhat ‘conflicted’ person. Others who have studied him may disagree. There will be some who may see his life and works as quite simple – there will be others like me who note and are intrigued by his ‘contradictions’. I could go as far to say his ‘paradoxes’:
Sassoon’s reputation increased by writing about the horrors of the trenches and satirising those who watched and supported the war from afar.
He was a decorated officer turned pacifist. ‘Finished with the War: A Soldier’s Declaration’ of 1917, read out in parliament, was his statement to express his disgust and broken support for the continuation of the war. Friends rallied behind him to ward off a potential court-marshal. Instead, he agreed to psychiatric treatment at a military hospital. Eventually, he renounced his pacifist stance, or put it to one side, and willingly (I would say ‘eagerly’) returned to the Western Front. Sassoon was commended for his bravery and respected by his men who named him ‘Mad Jack’, but often dodged confrontation in civilian life.
For a long time, he supressed his homosexuality but there were hints in the biography that his collective attraction to the troops under his command was not ignored. After the war, his affairs and relationships were mostly with much younger men (his overarching need to protect?). He had love affairs with actors, artists, writers, and at one time a German prince.
Sassoon was a music/art lover, husband then father, something he longed for. Once his son was born, his energy transferred to parental devotion, it would seem at the expense of his marriage. He suffered greatly when relationships soured and he felt shut out, writing about how these breakdowns in his relationships had such a devastating impact on him, but ended up treating his wife with similar disregard.
Sassoon saw himself as a socialist but held onto many outdated English values and stereotypes. He loved fox hunting and was a cricketer, but often looked down on other sports.
Despite being raised Anglican, he converted to Catholicism a decade before his death. Some have suggested his earlier poetry gave veiled signs of his need to commit to faith.
As with my review, often things can be ‘overthought and overworked’. I wanted to find the real Siegfried Sassoon, but in the end, glad that that was not fully achieved. It would be a shame to compartmentalise a brilliant, complex artist.
Of note, this biography names the who’s who of the British elite of those times – people with titles. Sassoon often criticised snobbery but tended to lean toward people of standing. His meetings and friendships with other writers, artists, poets and socialites were boundless. His friendship with and admiration for aging writers, such as Thomas Hardy, was charming.
I am not finished with Sassoon. I am interested in his prose, his semi-autobiographical works known as the ‘Sherston trilogy’. Maybe that is where I will find a few more answers?
Yes, I have also contradicted myself. I do wish to know the real Sassoon.
Some context will help me get my thoughts together =
A few years ago, whilst researching musicians and composers who fought, and in many cases died, in the Great War, a friend loaned me a book on English war poets. When I opened it up, it fell upon a poem by Siegfried Sassoon – ‘Reconciliation’. I admit, I ignored the other poems. When I read ‘Reconciliation’, it spoke about both sides, and talked about German mothers and German soldiers, I needed to research this poet further
I’m not a big poetry fan, and I’m certainly unfamiliar with war poems, but with many things in life, coincidences and circumstances take us into places we don’t usually venture.
Yes, ‘Reconciliation’ struck a resounding chord with me. It was good to see where it appeared in the trajectory of Sassoon’s war.
Not long ago, another friend cited the Sassoon poem, ‘Glory of Women’ –
‘Trampling the terrible corpses – blind with blood.
O German mother dreaming by the fire,
While you are knitting socks to send to your son
His face is trodden deeper in the mud’
She accompanied me to see the film ‘Benediction’, a powerful portrayal of Sassoon’s life and loves – of course, all crammed into a movie, therefore I needed to know more.
I downloaded this biography and learned more about Sassoon than I expected. At times, just too much (if that makes sense?) and, half way through, took a break.
When I returned, with fresh eyes, I accepted biographies often have their limitations. In this case, not in content (it is very detailed, a warning!), but Sassoon remains an enigma to me, a somewhat ‘conflicted’ person. Others who have studied him may disagree. There will be some who may see his life and works as quite simple – there will be others like me who note and are intrigued by his ‘contradictions’. I could go as far to say his ‘paradoxes’:
Sassoon’s reputation increased by writing about the horrors of the trenches and satirising those who watched and supported the war from afar.
He was a decorated officer turned pacifist. ‘Finished with the War: A Soldier’s Declaration’ of 1917, read out in parliament, was his statement to express his disgust and broken support for the continuation of the war. Friends rallied behind him to ward off a potential court-marshal. Instead, he agreed to psychiatric treatment at a military hospital. Eventually, he renounced his pacifist stance, or put it to one side, and willingly (I would say ‘eagerly’) returned to the Western Front. Sassoon was commended for his bravery and respected by his men who named him ‘Mad Jack’, but often dodged confrontation in civilian life.
For a long time, he supressed his homosexuality but there were hints in the biography that his collective attraction to the troops under his command was not ignored. After the war, his affairs and relationships were mostly with much younger men (his overarching need to protect?). He had love affairs with actors, artists, writers, and at one time a German prince.
Sassoon was a music/art lover, husband then father, something he longed for. Once his son was born, his energy transferred to parental devotion, it would seem at the expense of his marriage. He suffered greatly when relationships soured and he felt shut out, writing about how these breakdowns in his relationships had such a devastating impact on him, but ended up treating his wife with similar disregard.
Sassoon saw himself as a socialist but held onto many outdated English values and stereotypes. He loved fox hunting and was a cricketer, but often looked down on other sports.
Despite being raised Anglican, he converted to Catholicism a decade before his death. Some have suggested his earlier poetry gave veiled signs of his need to commit to faith.
As with my review, often things can be ‘overthought and overworked’. I wanted to find the real Siegfried Sassoon, but in the end, glad that that was not fully achieved. It would be a shame to compartmentalise a brilliant, complex artist.
Of note, this biography names the who’s who of the British elite of those times – people with titles. Sassoon often criticised snobbery but tended to lean toward people of standing. His meetings and friendships with other writers, artists, poets and socialites were boundless. His friendship with and admiration for aging writers, such as Thomas Hardy, was charming.
I am not finished with Sassoon. I am interested in his prose, his semi-autobiographical works known as the ‘Sherston trilogy’. Maybe that is where I will find a few more answers?
Yes, I have also contradicted myself. I do wish to know the real Sassoon.
October 9, 2011
As with so many of these biographies it makes you sometimes like the person a little less. Sassoon is a snob and comes across a tad patronizing, he lived a life of a minor scion of the landed gentry and takes this all for granted. The war certainly dents this but it didn't come across to me that it fundamentally changed his view of the class structure. He certainly feels for his men, (no homosexual double entendre intended) but still as the overlord or gracious gentry. He undoubtedly was a brave, caring and good man but still very much a product of Edwardian society. this book doesn't seem to imply that that very much changed. It has sent me back to his poetry with renewed interest because you see where the poems were born or at least conceived and Wilson is very good at imparting information and in a very detailed manner, prhaps sometimes overly so. She takes you through the endless twists and turns of his struggles with his poet versus action man persona, with the contorted arguments he had concerning patriotism and whether that necessitated continuing to fight in an immoral war or standing up against it (plus ca change) and the agonies of his repressed homosexual yearnings. Indeed, if she was to tell the reader once more that Sassoon did not begin a full blown sexual relationship before the Armistice I was all set to scream. The impression of the man is well delineated but serves to make me cool to him; the development of the poetry in the narrative enables me to place the works more clearly in his life journey; the overall structure of the book led me to think that a re-reading by an editor with a desire to remove repetition and re-summarizing might have resulted in a few pages being removed. Well worth the effort of reading though whether from a poetic point of view or as another volume in the ' Great War ' bookcase.
April 30, 2021
Good, detailed biography. Occasionally in danger of getting bogged down in too much detail, but generally enagaging and full of interesting information. As with all good biography it humanises Sassoon nicely, showing the different and sometimes contradictory sides of him well, making him feel like a fully rounded person for the reader.
October 31, 2017
I think this biography was incredible, and I loved the attention to detail. It had information in it that I have never found in any other biography - from a floor plan of his childhood home to giving us the date of when he urinated towards a German trench! Amazing.
I feel that Wilson had a brilliant way of criticizing Sassoon without making you dislike him. She does not tiptoe around his snobbishness and his sexism, nor does she make excuses for his poor behaviour. In fact, I seem to like Sassoon more for all his faults.
I loved this biography. The attention paid to the analysis of his poetry I think would be very helpful to academic students studying this man's work and life.
I feel that Wilson had a brilliant way of criticizing Sassoon without making you dislike him. She does not tiptoe around his snobbishness and his sexism, nor does she make excuses for his poor behaviour. In fact, I seem to like Sassoon more for all his faults.
I loved this biography. The attention paid to the analysis of his poetry I think would be very helpful to academic students studying this man's work and life.
February 15, 2010
Jean Moorcroft Wilson's writing is a dream, this is a wonderful account of a complex life. It’s the best biography about Siegfried Sassoon by far. It captures his early life so well and has an non-biased view of his life and as a person. It’s a fascinating intelligent look at a flawed and interesting hero and one of the best and gifted WW1 poets.
October 3, 2012
This book reads as a combination of biography/war history and literary criticism. I picked it up at our local library book sale because I had wanted to find out more about Sassoon's life, especially his stand against the War and his life as a gay man during that time period. The author does a very good job covering Sassoon's objections to the war, showing his change of heart throughout the course of his service and his eventual official statement of protest, as well as the repercussions he endured. (Compared to the punishments many others received, though, Sassoon had a fairly easy time of it.)
While I recognize the fact that, in many people's eyes, Sassoon was first and foremost a poet, and the fact that the author is an academic in the field of literature, I didn't enjoy the emphasis the book made on the development of Sassoon's craft. The detailed descriptions of various poems' meter and rhyme schemes left me bored.
I also did not enjoy Wilson's coverage of Sassoon's homosexuality, and how that related to his military service and his relationships with his fellow poets. It's apparent that she has difficulty even discussing the idea of homosexuality. Like many people, Wilson seems to have a hard time understanding that homosexuals can be interested in a person's mind - their opinions, their life philosophy, etc. - without being physically and emotionally attracted to the person. In multiple instances, Wilson makes the statement that Sassoon was physically attracted to (or, in some cases, emotionally overwrought over) fellow army officers, without offering evidence from Sassoon's journals or other writings to support that claim. And as a military veteran who also happens to be gay, I find Wilson's insinuation that Sassoon's care for his troops was a result of the sublimation of some lecherous physical attraction to be repulsive.
While I recognize the fact that, in many people's eyes, Sassoon was first and foremost a poet, and the fact that the author is an academic in the field of literature, I didn't enjoy the emphasis the book made on the development of Sassoon's craft. The detailed descriptions of various poems' meter and rhyme schemes left me bored.
I also did not enjoy Wilson's coverage of Sassoon's homosexuality, and how that related to his military service and his relationships with his fellow poets. It's apparent that she has difficulty even discussing the idea of homosexuality. Like many people, Wilson seems to have a hard time understanding that homosexuals can be interested in a person's mind - their opinions, their life philosophy, etc. - without being physically and emotionally attracted to the person. In multiple instances, Wilson makes the statement that Sassoon was physically attracted to (or, in some cases, emotionally overwrought over) fellow army officers, without offering evidence from Sassoon's journals or other writings to support that claim. And as a military veteran who also happens to be gay, I find Wilson's insinuation that Sassoon's care for his troops was a result of the sublimation of some lecherous physical attraction to be repulsive.
June 7, 2010
Wilson's biography is thorough, intelligent, sympathetic, and perceptive ... it is essentially exactly what you would hope for in a biography of someone like Sassoon. He's an important figure in his period, something of a turning point or a keystone for the way poetry developed, although he is unfortunately often very disappointing. (At least in hindsight.) He also spent the second half of his life rehashing the first half in prose and poetry, so it makes sense for Wilson to divide her book up, although I suspect that this first volume is the one that will get read the most. She does a very good job of bringing together historical, literary, artistic, social, and personal threads to create a rich picture of Sassoon and his contemporaries.
She is not afraid to criticize him, and as some of his poetry is indeed quite bad, this is a virtue.
She is not afraid to criticize him, and as some of his poetry is indeed quite bad, this is a virtue.
August 17, 2011
Excellent source of detailed knowledge about Sassoon's early life which I very much enjoyed reading. The one drawback was her commentary on the poems. I found some of these stilted and with little to say.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews