Siegfried Sassoon Trivia Quiz

Answer: World War I

Born on September 8, 1886, Sassoon was a soldier who was decorated for his bravery on the Western Front in World War I. Once, he single-handedly captured a German trench on the Hindenburg Line and scattered the German soldiers. He was awarded the Military Cross on July 27, 1916.

His poems critique the war by detailing its horror and satirizing those responsible for England's involvement.

Answer: Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man

"War and Remembrance" and "Winds of War" were both by Herman Wouk and take place in World War II. "The Red Badge of Courage" was written by Stephen Crane and takes place in the American Civil War.

Published anonymously in 1928, "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man" is an often humorous autobiographic novel depicting the writer's early years as a character named George Sherston. In the book, fox-hunting represents the author's innocent outlook before the war, but the memoir ends with his transfer to a battalion of the Royal Welsh, which is sent to France. Sassoon wrote "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer" to continue the story, which was followed by "Sherston's Progress." Prior to this work, he was known only as a poet.

Answer: Wilfred Owen

After his convalescent leave, Siegfried Sassoon refused to return to duty and instead, in 1917, submitted a letter titled "Finished with the War: A Soldier's Declaration" to his commanding officer, which was also published in the press. As a consequence, rather than have him court martialed, he was declared a victim of shell shock and committed to Craiglockhart War Hospital.

There, he met and befriended Wilfred Owen.

Answer: The Daffodil Murderer

"The Weary Blues" is a collection by Langston Hughes. "Mountain Intervals" is by Robert Frost. "Leaves of Grass" is by Walt Whitman.

"The Daffodil Murderer" is a parody of "The Everlasting Mercy," a poem by John Masefield. Sassoon published it under the pseudonym of Saul Kain. The publisher's name of John Richmond was also a pseudonym, in this case for T WH Crosland, who also wrote the introduction to the poem under the name of William Butler.

Sassoon's next book, a collection of poetry, did not come out until 1917. It was titled, "The Old Huntsman".

Answer: Charge of the Light Brigade

"Charge of the Light Brigade" is an 1854 poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson set during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. Sassoon was somewhat openly homosexual for the time and had a series of affairs with men (including with two actors, two aristocrats, and a writer), but he eventually married Hester Gatty in 1933 and had a son named George.

Answer: The counter-attack

These lines conclude the poem "Counter-Attack" which was published in Sassoon's 1918 collection of the same name. The poem describes a failed counter-attack on the German line. The poem begins hopefully:

"We'd gained our first objective hours before
While dawn broke like a face with blinking eyes..."

It then goes on to graphically describe the scene as the counter-attack fails:

"'O Christ, they're coming at us!' Bullets spat,
And he remembered his rifle ... rapid fire ...
And started blazing wildly ... then a bang
Crumpled and spun him sideways, knocked him out
To grunt and wriggle: none heeded him; he choked
And fought the flapping veils of smothering gloom,
Lost in a blurred confusion of yells and groans ..."

Answer: The Death Bed

The poem describes the scene as the soldier takes a drink, the night comes, and the rain comes. The soldier hovers on the border between life and death, a reality that is symbolized by waves and water, until finally:

"But death replied: 'I choose him.' So he went,
And there was silence in the summer night;
Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep.
Then, far away, the thudding of the guns."

Answer: Glory of Women

These are the opening lines of "Glory of Women." This poem was included in Sassoon's 1918 collection "Counter-Attack and Other Poems". It describes how women fawn over men's heroism in war but turn a blind eye to the horrors they experience. The women make the soldiers shells and are thrilled by stories of heroism in battle and mourn the fallen soldiers, but they don't acknowledge the horror of war:

"You can't believe that British troops 'retire'
When hell's last horror breaks them, and they run,
Trampling the terrible corpses-blind with blood.
O German mother dreaming by the fire,
While you are knitting socks to send your son
His face is trodden deeper in the mud."

Answer: wise

These lines come from "Absolution", which was written while Sassoon was in officer training. It was originally published in "The Westminster Gazette" in March of 1916.

The poem reads:

"The anguish of the earth absolves our eyes
Till beauty shines in all that we can see.
War is our scourge; yet war has made us wise,
And, fighting for our freedom, we are free.

Horror of wounds and anger at the foe,
And loss of things desired; all these must pass.
We are the happy legion, for we know
Time's but a golden wind that shakes the grass.

There was an hour when we were loth to part
From life we longed to share no less than others.
Now, having claimed this heritage of heart,
What need we more, my comrades and my brothers?"

Answer: The General

These are the opening lines to the sardonic poem "The General", which concludes:

"'He's a cheery old card,' grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.

But he did for them both by his plan of attack."

Arras is a reference to The Battle of Arras, a British offensive on the Western Front in World War I in April and May of 1917, which resulted in many British deaths.

Answer: Adam

The poem depicts Adam, "a brown old vulture in the rain," after Cain has murdered Abel:

"He moaned and mumbled to his darkening brain;
'He was the grandest of them all-was Cain!
'A lion laired in the hills, that none could tire;
'Swift as a stag; a stallion of the plain,
'Hungry and fierce with deeds of huge desire.'

Grimly he thought of Abel, soft and fair-
A lover with disaster in his face,
And scarlet blossom twisted in bright hair.
'Afraid to fight; was murder more disgrace? ...
'God always hated Cain' ... He bowed his head-
The gaunt wild man whose lovely sons were dead."

This poem was published in the collection "Picture Show" in 1919.

Answer: dreamers

These lines come from the poem "Dreamers". The poem, which describes the thoughts of foot soldiers as they face enemy fire in World War I, was first published as part of the 1918 collection "'Counter-Attack' and Other Poems". The poem begins:

"Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land,
Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows.
In the great hour of destiny they stand,
Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows.
Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win
Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives.
Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin
They think of firelit homes, clean beds and wives."

Answer: George Meredith

John Milton was a neoclassical poet and Blake belonged to the romantic age. Stephen Crane was American. George Meredith wrote "The Lark Ascending", "Modern Love", "A Faith on Trial", "Dirge in the Woods", and other collections of poetry. Sassoon's biography of the writer was published in 1948 by Constable.

Answer: Mad Jack

In this installment of "The Wednesday Play", Michael Jayston starred as Siegfried Sassoon. While Sassoon experienced anxiety and depression at the horror of war, he also displayed a manic courage and engaged in dangerous exploits in battle. This earned him the nickname Mad Jack.

Answer: Roman Catholicism

Sassoon was born to a Jewish father and an Anglo-Catholic mother and was brought up Anglican. He became an atheist, but later converted to Roman Catholicism toward the end of the life. He had hoped the writer and priest Ronald Knox would catechize him, but Knox was too ill for the task, and so he was instructed by Sebastian Moore instead.