Question

Describe the tone of each stanza in Siegfried Sassoon’s poem “Poet as Hero.” Provide textual evidence to support your answer.

Answer 1

Sassoon begins the poem with an angry tone. The speaker describes how Sassoon has changed from sweet to angry:

  You’ve heard me, scornful, harsh, and discontented,  

         Mocking and loathing War: you’ve asked me why  

    Of my old, silly sweetness I’ve repented—  

         My ecstasies changed to an ugly cry.  

As the poem progresses, Sassoon shifts to why he was hopeful when he first started out as a military officer:

    You are aware that once I sought the Grail,  

         Riding in armour bright, serene and strong;  

    And it was told that through my infant wail  

         There rose immortal semblances of song.

Sassoon ends the poem with a tone of being content that he has changed in this process:

    But now I’ve said good-bye to Galahad,  

         And am no more the knight of dreams and show:  

    For lust and senseless hatred make me glad,  

         And my killed friends are with me where I go.  

    Wound for red wound I burn to smite their wrongs;  

         And there is absolution in my songs.