Welcome, fellow explorers of language and meaning! Today, we embark on a journey into the heart of one of the most powerful and poignant poems to emerge from the Great War: Siegfried Sassoon’s “Counter Attack.” This poem is not merely a historical document; it is a visceral experience, a stark and unforgettable portrayal of the brutal realities faced by soldiers. Prepare to delve into its depths, uncover its literary brilliance, and understand why it continues to resonate with such profound impact.
Counter Attack
By Siegfried Sassoon
We’d gained our first objective hours before
While dawn broke like a face with blinking eyes,
Pallid, unshaven and thirsty, blind with smoke.
Things seemed all right at first. We held their line,
With bombers posted, Lewis guns well placed,
And the clink of shovels deepening the shallow trench.
The place was rotten with dead; green clumsy legs
High booted, sprawled and grovelled along the saps
And trunks, face downward, in the sucking mud,
Wallowed like trodden sandbags loosely filled;
And naked sodden buttocks, mats of hair,
Bulged, clotted heads slept in the plastering slime.
And then the rain began the jolly old rain!A yawning soldier knelt against the bank,
Staring across the morning glare with fog;
He wondered when the Germans would get busy;
And then, of course, they started with five nines
Traversing, sure as fate, and never a dud.
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.An officer came blundering down the trench:
“Stand to and man the fire step!” On he went …
Gasping and bawling, “Fire step counter attack!”
Then the haze lifted. Bombing on the right
Down the old sap: machine guns on the left;
And stumbling figures looming out in front.
“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 …
Down, and down, and down, he sank and drowned,
Bleeding to death. The counter attack had failed.
Unveiling “Counter Attack”: A Summary
Siegfried Sassoon’s “Counter Attack,” penned in 1918 amidst the brutal final year of World War I, stands as a stark and uncompromising depiction of trench warfare. The poem deliberately avoids any glorification of battle, instead meticulously detailing the grim reality, the senseless loss of life, and the profound psychological trauma endured by soldiers. It immerses the reader in a soldier’s experience during a desperate counter attack against the enemy, ultimately revealing the futility of such efforts and the devastating, personal consequences of war.
The central idea of “Counter Attack” revolves around the profound disillusionment with war and a searing indictment of its perceived purpose. Sassoon masterfully illustrates how soldiers are dehumanized, reduced to mere cogs in a machine of violence and death, where individual lives are rendered meaningless in the pursuit of abstract, larger goals. The poem’s chilling final line, “The counter attack had failed,” serves as a powerful and unforgettable statement on the ultimate senselessness and tragic cost of armed conflict.
A noteworthy aspect for any reader is the poem’s unwavering commitment to realism. Sassoon, a soldier himself, pulls no punches in presenting the sheer horror and chaos of the front lines, challenging romanticized notions of warfare prevalent at the time. This poem is a crucial piece of war literature, offering an authentic glimpse into the soldier’s experience.
A Deep Dive into “Counter Attack”: Literary Analysis
Siegfried Sassoon’s “Counter Attack” is a masterclass in poetic craftsmanship, employing a range of literary and poetic devices to convey its powerful anti-war message. A thorough analysis reveals how each element contributes to the poem’s visceral impact and enduring significance.
The Unflinching Gaze: Imagery and Sensory Detail
Sassoon’s genius lies in his ability to plunge the reader directly into the visceral reality of the trenches through powerfully evocative imagery and sensory detail. The poem opens with a striking personification that immediately sets a bleak tone:
While dawn broke like a face with blinking eyes,
Pallid, unshaven and thirsty, blind with smoke.
This image of dawn, personified as a weary, smoke-blinded soldier, immediately establishes the pervasive suffering and the blurring of natural beauty with battlefield horror. The landscape itself is sick. The poem then descends into grotesque descriptions of death and decay, forcing the reader to confront the brutal physicality of war:
The place was rotten with dead; green clumsy legs
High booted, sprawled and grovelled along the saps
And trunks, face downward, in the sucking mud,
Wallowed like trodden sandbags loosely filled;
And naked sodden buttocks, mats of hair,
Bulged, clotted heads slept in the plastering slime.
These lines are deliberately shocking, using words like “rotten,” “green clumsy legs,” “sucking mud,” “naked sodden buttocks,” and “clotted heads” to create a deeply unsettling and unforgettable picture of carnage. This is not sanitized heroism; it is the raw, unvarnished truth of battlefield aftermath, appealing to sight, touch, and even a sense of decay. The description of the dead “wallowed like trodden sandbags loosely filled” further dehumanizes the fallen, reducing them to inert, discarded objects.
The Sound of Battle: Poetic Devices and Auditory Impact
Sassoon masterfully employs sound devices to enhance the poem’s atmosphere and immerse the reader in the cacophony of war. Alliteration, the repetition of consonant sounds, subtly creates a sense of rhythmic activity and underlying tension:
And the clink of shovels deepening the shallow trench.
The repeated ‘c’ and ‘sh’ sounds here mimic the relentless, monotonous digging, emphasizing the soldiers’ grueling efforts even in moments of relative calm. Later, the sounds of battle erupt:
Mute in the clamour of shells he watched them burst
Spouting dark earth and wire with gusts from hell,
The harsh ‘cl’ and ‘sh’ sounds return, now associated with the explosive “clamour of shells,” while the ‘sp’ and ‘g’ sounds in the following line contribute to the explosive and violent imagery. Assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds, also plays a crucial role:
Spouting dark earth and wire with gusts from hell,
The repeated ‘ou’ and ‘u’ sounds here contribute to the explosive quality of the artillery fire, amplifying the chaotic and destructive nature of the battle. The poem also uses onomatopoeia, words that imitate the sounds they represent, to heighten the auditory experience:
“O Christ, they’re coming at us!” Bullets spat,
And he remembered his rifle … rapid fire …
And started blazing wildly … then a bang
The words “spat” and “bang” directly convey the sharp, sudden sounds of gunfire and explosions, pulling the reader into the immediate, terrifying moment of combat.
Twisted Truths: Personification and Irony
Personification, giving human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas, plays a key role in shaping the poem’s meaning and tone. As observed in the opening lines, dawn is given human characteristics, subtly suggesting that even nature itself is affected and scarred by the war’s horrors. This contributes to the pervasive somber and weary tone. The shells are described as “Traversing, sure as fate,” imbuing them with an almost malevolent, unstoppable will.
Irony, however, is perhaps even more powerful in “Counter Attack.” Sassoon frequently uses it to underscore the absurdity and horror of the soldiers’ situation. The most striking example appears after the gruesome descriptions of the dead and the mud:
And then the rain began the jolly old rain!
The use of the lighthearted, almost cheerful phrase “the jolly old rain” to describe a relentless, oppressive downpour in a landscape of death is deeply ironic. It highlights the profound psychological detachment or grim humor soldiers might adopt to cope with unimaginable conditions, or perhaps it is a bitter commentary on the triviality of everyday concerns in the face of such overwhelming suffering. This line powerfully underscores the absurdity and grim reality of the battlefield, where even something as mundane as rain becomes another layer of misery, yet is greeted with a twisted, almost desperate, normalcy.
Beyond the Literal: Metaphor and Symbolism
The poem is rich with metaphor and symbolism, adding layers of meaning to its stark realism. The ubiquitous presence of “sucking mud” and the dead “wallowed like trodden sandbags loosely filled” serves as a potent metaphor for the physical and emotional entrapment the soldiers experience. The mud represents the inescapable, degrading conditions, while the sandbags symbolize the expendability and dehumanization of the soldiers, whose lives are as easily discarded as battlefield fortifications.
The “posturing giants dissolved in drifts of smoke” is a powerful metaphor for the fleeting nature of perceived strength, courage, or even the physical bodies of men in the face of overwhelming artillery fire. These “giants” are quickly reduced to nothing, emphasizing the destructive power of modern warfare. The relentless “five nines” of shells symbolize an endless, impersonal barrage that erodes both the body and the spirit, representing the mechanical, unfeeling nature of the war machine.
The “flapping veils of smothering gloom” that the dying soldier fights against symbolize the encroaching darkness of death, but also the confusion, terror, and isolation of his final moments. It is a metaphor for the ultimate surrender to the overwhelming forces of war.
The Structure of Chaos: Form and Rhythm
“Counter Attack” is written in free verse, a deliberate choice that mirrors the unpredictability, chaos, and lack of order on the battlefield. There is no regular rhyme scheme or meter, which prevents the poem from feeling controlled or predictable, instead reflecting the raw, unvarnished reality of the experience. The rapid succession of line breaks and the shifting perspectives create a sense of immediacy and urgency, pulling the reader into the unfolding horror. The poem’s three stanzas effectively delineate the progression of the narrative:
- The first stanza establishes the grim, corpse-strewn environment and the initial, fragile illusion of holding the line.
- The second stanza shifts focus to a single soldier’s internal terror as the enemy bombardment begins, highlighting the psychological strain.
- The third stanza plunges into the chaotic collapse of the counter attack, detailing the rapid, brutal failure and the death of a soldier, culminating in the stark, unyielding conclusion.
The final line, “The counter attack had failed,” punctuates the poem with a stark, declarative statement that echoes the soldiers’ sense of defeat and the ultimate futility of their sacrifice. This abrupt ending leaves a lasting impression of tragedy and waste.
Thematic Resonance: Disillusionment and the Human Cost
At its core, “Counter Attack” is a profound exploration of disillusionment with war. Sassoon, through his vivid imagery and narrative, strips away any romantic notions of heroism, revealing the conflict as a dehumanizing, chaotic, and ultimately pointless endeavor. The poem’s progression from a fragile sense of control to utter chaos and individual death powerfully conveys this central message. The soldiers are not presented as valiant heroes but as terrified, suffering individuals, reduced to “grunt and wriggle” in their final moments. Their lives are cheap, their efforts futile, and their deaths unheeded.
The poem’s detailed depiction of the dead and dying emphasizes the immense human cost of war, not in abstract numbers, but in grotesque, personal detail. The “blurred confusion of yells and groans” and the soldier who “sank and drowned, / Bleeding to death” underscore the anonymity and horror of individual suffering within the larger, impersonal machinery of battle. “Counter Attack” stands as a powerful testament to the psychological and physical devastation wrought by war, a timeless warning against its seductive but ultimately destructive allure.
A Lasting Echo of Reality
Siegfried Sassoon’s “Counter Attack” remains an indispensable piece of war literature, a poem that refuses to let its readers look away from the grim realities of conflict. Through its unflinching imagery, powerful sound devices, biting irony, and profound symbolism, the poem masterfully conveys the chaos, terror, and ultimate futility of trench warfare. It is a testament to the human spirit’s capacity for endurance amidst unimaginable horror, and a searing indictment of the forces that perpetuate such suffering. To truly understand “Counter Attack” is to confront the raw, unvarnished truth of war, a lesson that resonates as powerfully today as it did a century ago.