Nicholas Carpenter

ERH 205WX Short Assignment, 15 April 2020

Help Received: Spellcheck

Sassoon, “Attack.” Part 1: The subject of this poem is a morning attack, as the title might suggest. The first few lines describe the scenery, and then the tanks, artillery, and infantry are introduced, each playing a part in the attack.

Part 2: One line I found particularly interesting was “With bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear.” To my ear this one line sounds slightly reminiscent of the word choice in Beowulf, which describes in great detail all the “battle-gear” of the warriors. Furthermore, this poem also has several alliterative lines, which is a central component of the Beowulf text. I do not know if Beowulf would have been common reading material in England by the time of this poem, or if it had been on the author’s mind while writing. If so, Sassoon creates an interesting juxtaposition with this phrase and the one two lines down, “masked with fear,” because fearlessness is a trait of warriors in epic poetry like Beowulf. This line is the second one I would like to discuss. “Lines of gray, muttering faces, masked with fear.” This line is particularly powerful because fear acts as a mask over the soldiers’ faces, which is a unique and interesting visual.

Sassoon, “Counter-Attack.” Part 1: The setting of this poem is in a recently captured area. Artillery begins to fire on the position and an officer orders the troops onto the firing line to repel the attack. The narrator mostly follows an unnamed soldier. After being initially dazed, the soldier picks up his rifle and fires, but is knocked to the ground with a bang and he bleeds to death.

Part 2:An interesting line in this poem is “While posturing giants dissolved in drifts of smoke.” These figurative giants create an unusual image. The very last line, “Bleeding to death. The counter-attack had failed” is also very effective because it more jarring mechanically than the rest of the poem. It is the shortest sentence in a poem where all the rest are three or more lines long. The line also shows the human cost of fighting the counter-attack.

Sassoon, “The Rear-Guard.” Part 1: In this poem, the narrator follows a soldier walking through a tunnel with his flashlight. The soldier finds someone he assumes to be sleeping and tries to wake him for directions. The soldier flashes the light over him and sees that he is actually dead. He walks on alone until finding open air again.

Part 2: An effective image in this poem is “Dawn’s ghost that filtered down a shafted stair.” The word choice is unique and grabs the reader’s attention. The image from the very next line, the “dazed, muttering creatures underground,” is effective because it gives some perspective on the effects of the war and tunneling.