Remembrance

It is twisted. It is looming and leering and grotesque and harsh and strange and cruel and threatening and all-compassing and inescapable. It overtook the world and spasm on the surface of everyone’s thoughts until it consumed a generation of men. It began with a purpose but it dissolved like powder in water until everything had turned a sickly shade of green and nothing left resembled a logical world. The world had turned sick. The world had turned in on itself  and nothing remained. The world that existed was disproportionate and despicable. The men trapped in the bubble suffocated from the lack of sanity and the lack of oxygen. Nothing was sacred and nothing was safe. The world had lost its morals and soon, very little was left standing.  It was in this world that Siegfried Sassoon lived in. He was transformed by it. He was a second lieutenant in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers during World War One. He was a hero. He was beloved by his men and honored with the Military Cross. He was given the cross for his actions during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The cross itself was engraved with

2nd Lt. Siegfried Lorraine Sassoon, 3rd (attd. 1st) Bn., R. W. Fus.

For conspicuous gallantry during a raid on the enemy’s trenches. He remained for 1½ hours under rifle and bomb fire collecting and bringing in our wounded. Owing to his courage and determination all the killed and wounded were brought in.

During the battle of the Somme, he saved the lives of many a good man. He saved his friends and his soldiers and acted in a way that most people could not even dream of. He was gallant. He walked back and fro from a German trench, carrying the wounded and killed back into the safety of the British lines. He saved all those he had lost and all those he was losing. He was a man’s man. He was one of the cover faces for the British army. He was one of the stories that the government was proud of.

He was a villain. He was despicable and cruel and un-understanding and threatening and harsh and twisted and strange. Sassoon lost his favor with the government and the military and therefore lost everything. He was the emblem of revolution. He was leader of a revolt. He lost. He was stripped of dignity and power. He was reduced. He was lost. Sassoon was a name of courage and passion. Then he was a name lost in a dark, empty, forgotten hallway.

Sassoon wrote a letter to the British government. It was called a Soldier’s Declaration. It was a list of reasons as to why the war needed to end. It was the story of the sick and twisted world that he lived in. The war had lost its purpose and now there was no earthly reason to send in more men to die. The British government said he was mad. They said it was shell-shock. They said he was a coward. He was sent to Craiglockhart which is a mental institution. He was a problem that was hidden away. His revolt was over.

However, Sassoon disagreed. He began to write. He wrote about all that he saw and all that he went through. He painted a realistic image of the war in poetry. He captured a generation of men lost. He had survived the war. He found his humanity again by telling of unhuman things, of acts and creatures and dark nights and cold rains and rats and rum. Sassoon’s poems are world famous. Sassoon’s story marvels the world over. His cause is now supported. The war is described in his words. He was a loser who got to help write the history books. He was a survivor and he made sure the ones he lost and the ones he was loosing were remembered as well.

He is an example of a revolt that failed. However, he still “won” in the end. He survived and continued to tell his story. Now, his story is known and he is viewed as more of a hero because of it.