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Siegfried Sassoon

File:Siegfried_Sassoon_by_George_Charles_Beresford_(1915).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Siegfried Sassoon

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Also known as Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, Saul Kain, Pinchbeck Lyre, Siegfried Lorraine Sassoon

English war poet and writer (1886-1967)

Person · Open Library

Born
8 September 1886
Died
1 September 1967
Works
177

Top works

  • Recreations
  • Sherston's progress
  • The Weald Of Youth
  • Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man
  • fright in the forest

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United Kingdom
Active from
1886
Active to
1967
britishpoet

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
763
Total plays
2,335

Tags

spoken wordpoetry

Sassoon was born in a house named Weirleigh (which still stands) in the village of Matfield, Kent, to a Jewish father and a Protestant English mother. His father, Alfred, one of the wealthy Indian Baghdadi Jewish Sassoon merchant family, was disinherited for marrying outside the faith. His mother, Theresa, belonged to the Thornycroft family, sculptors responsible for many of the best-known statues in London—her brother was Sir Hamo Thornycroft. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Siegfried+Sassoo

via Last.fm · Siegfried Sassoon

Quotes

  • Let no one ever, from henceforth say one word in any way countenancing war. It is dangerous even to speak of how here and there the individual may gain some hardship of soul by it. For war is hell, and those who institute it are criminals. Were there even anything to say for it, it should not be said; for its spiritual disasters far outweigh any of its advantages.
  • Everyone suddenly burst out singing;And I was filled with such delightAs prisoned birds must find in freedom.
  • The visionless officialized fatuityThat once kept Europe safe for Perpetuity.
  • 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.
  • Mute in the clamour of shells he watched them burst Spouting dark earth and wire with gusts from hell, While posturing giants dissolved in drifts of smoke. He crouched and flinched, dizzy with galloping fear, Sick for escape,— loathing the strangled horror And butchered, frantic gestures of the dead.
  • Lost in a blurred confusion of yells and groans... Down, and down, and down, he sank and drowned, Bleeding to death. The counter-attack had failed.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon , ( 1886-09-08 ) 8 September 1886, Matfield , Kent, England
Died
1 September 1967 (1967-09-01) (aged 80), Heytesbury , Wiltshire, England
Pen name
Saul Kain Pinchbeck Lyre
Occupation
Soldier war poet writer
Education
Clare College, Cambridge Marlborough College New Beacon School
Genre
Poetry fiction biography
Notable works
The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston
Spouse
Hester Gatty ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1933 ; separated</span>"}]]}'>sep. 1945 ) ​
Children
George
Relatives
Sassoon family
Allegiance
United Kingdom
Branch
British Army
Service years
1914–1919
Rank
Captain
Unit
Sussex Yeomanry Royal Welch Fusiliers
Conflicts
First World War
Awards
Military Cross

via Wikipedia infobox

Works in European collections

1 object attributed to Siegfried Sassoon, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

~32 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches and satirized the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war. Sassoon became a focal point for dissent within the armed forces when he made a lone protest against the continuation of the war with his "Soldier's Declaration" of July 1917, which resulted in his being sent to the Craiglockhart War Hospital. During this period, Sassoon met and formed a friendship with Wilfred Owen, who was greatly influenced by him. Sassoon later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume, fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the Sherston trilogy, which is made up of Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man (1928), Memoirs of an Infantry Officer (1930) and Sherston's Progress (1936). Sassoon is also known for his poetry collection The Old Huntsman (1917).

Early life

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Siegfried Sassoon” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (8)