The Kiss by Siegfried Sassoon

[thomas]

For the discussion of war poetry I chose the following poem :

The Kiss by Siegfried Sassoon

To these I turn, in these I trust
Brother Lead and Sister Steel.
To his blind power I make appeal,
I guard her beauty clean from rust.

He spins and burns and loves the air,
And splits a skull to win my praise;
But up the nobly marching days
She glitters naked, cold and fair.

Sweet Sister, grant your soldier this:
That in good fury he may feel
The body where he sets his heel
Quail from your downward darting kiss.

In my opinion, this poem is among the best ever written during the
first world war. It contains a lot of imagery, which at first makes it
difficult, but the more you read it, the more you understand. This
gives the poem an extra dimension.
Apart from the imagery, the content is quite interesting too. It seems
like Sassoon is praising his gun and the bayonet, but as he was in the
war himself it’s unlikely to me that he really was that positive about
it. So I guess there is also some irony or even sarcasm to be found
throughout the poem, which gives it an entirely different meaning and
impact.
However, it would be wrong to consider my opinion the right one. I
have noticed, when presenting this poem, not all agree to search for
this deeper intention, namely Sassoon expressing sarcasm with words
that seem to be expressing praise rather than anger.

If anyone has doubts about my opinion or would like to add something,
please feel free to reply...

[Marilou]

Thomas,
I understand why you interpret Sassoon' s words as ironical.
It cannot be that he is really praising his weapons as they represent
war which he is against.
I think the poet was in a rather gloomy mood when he wrote this poem.
It seems to me that he has lost his faith in the world and in
people.
(as the world is at war and men do not try stopping it)
Now, the only thing he trusts and can still depend on are his weapons.
He asks them to not let him down in case of facing the enemy.
Greetings, Marilou

[Eveline]

Oh yes, I also think the writer doesn't mean the thinks he has written
down.
Siegfried Sassoon was an anti-war poet, so I believe he just
wanted to show us the crazyness of war.
Every soldier has a gun and is 'useless' without it.
Having no gun, mostly results in death...
It's really absurd that somebody's life depends on a piece of steal.
And the only way to survive is by killing other people... How
depressing is that?
I think it's not easy to live with the idea you've killed somebody.
I've heard people say that after a while, a soldier gets used to the
killing.
But I doubt that. How is it possible that you don't feel a thing when
you hear
your victim screaming, when you see his lifeless, empty eyes, when you
see him fall down...
That must be a horrible schock every time!

It 's a great poem that sets you on thinking...

Greetings,
Eveline

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[DJ]

The Kiss is, I think, a poem that Sassoon meant to be taken literally.

In April 1916 he was still quite pro-war. The poem has affinities
with Wifrid Gibson's "Bayonet"

"This bloody steel
Has killed a man,
I heard him squeal
As on I ran"

http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=UGnp82cqb20C&dq=Wilfrid+Gibson+Battle&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=N68b199Rx1&sig=hW4-dTYrfp3hVE7zlFa-qa2PYnk&ei=Tx-USbqtHtm0jAfWjtCcCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA11,M1

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