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.
Summary of Counter Attack
Siegfried Sassoon’s “Counter Attack,” written in 1918 during the final year of World War I, offers a stark and unflinching portrayal of trench warfare. The poem does not glorify battle; instead, it meticulously depicts the grim reality, the senseless loss, and the psychological trauma experienced by soldiers. It follows a soldier’s experience as he attempts a counter attack against the enemy, revealing the futility of his efforts and the devastating consequences of war.
The central idea revolves around the disillusionment with war and the questioning of its purpose. Sassoon masterfully shows how soldiers are reduced to mere objects, caught in a cycle of violence and death, where individual lives are rendered meaningless in the face of larger, abstract goals. The poem’s final lines, “The counter attack had failed,” serve as a powerful indictment of the war’s senselessness.
Detailed Literary Analysis
Imagery and Sensory Detail
Sassoon’s strength lies in his ability to immerse the reader in the visceral reality of the trenches. He achieves this through powerfully evocative imagery. The opening lines are immediately striking: “We’d gained our first objective hours before / While dawn broke like a face with blinking eyes.” This personification of dawn, while seemingly innocuous, hints at the bleak and unsettling nature of the battlefield.
The poem continues with disturbing images of death and decay. Lines like “The place was rotten with dead; green clumsy legs / High booted, sprawled and grovelled along the saps” create a deeply unsettling picture. The grotesque details, such as “naked sodden buttocks” and “clotted heads,” are deliberately shocking, forcing the reader to confront the brutal physicality of war. This isn’t sanitized heroism, but the raw, unvarnished truth of battlefield carnage.
Sound Devices
Sassoon utilizes sound devices to enhance the poem’s atmosphere and impact. Alliteration, the repetition of consonant sounds, is used subtly to create a sense of rhythmic activity. Consider “clink of shovels’, the repetition of the ‘c’ sound mimics the relentless digging, emphasizing the soldiers’ grueling efforts. This sound blends with the imagined sounds of war, immersing the reader within the scene.
Assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds, is also present. In the line “Spouting dark earth and wire with gusts from hell,” the repeated ‘ou’ sound contributes to the explosive quality of the artillery fire. The harshness of the sounds amplifies the chaotic and destructive nature of the battle, simulating the sounds of war on the page.
Personification and Irony
Personification plays a key role in shaping the poem’s meaning. As seen in the opening lines, dawn is given human qualities, subtly suggesting that even nature is affected by the war’s horrors. This helps create a somber tone.
Irony is perhaps even more powerful. The line “And then the rain began the jolly old rain!” is a prime example. The use of a lighthearted phrase to describe the relentless, oppressive downpour underscores the absurdity of the soldiers’ situation.
Metaphor and Symbolism
The recurring motif of sandbags and mud serves as a metaphor for the physical and emotional entrapment the soldiers experience. The “posturing giants” that dissolve in smoke represent the fleeting nature of perceived strength in war. The relentless “five nines” of shells suggest an endless barrage that erodes both the body and the spirit.
Structure and Rhythm
The poem’s free verse structure mirrors the unpredictability of the battlefield. The rapid succession of line breaks and the shifting perspectives create a sense of immediacy. The final line, “The counter attack had failed,” punctuates the poem with a stark, unyielding conclusion that echoes the soldiers’ sense of defeat.
Interpretation: How Each Part Contributes to the Central Message
- First stanza: Establishes the harsh environment and the initial illusion of control.
- Second stanza: Highlights the soldiers’ disorientation and the psychological strain of impending fire.
- Third stanza: Describes the chaotic collapse of the counter attack and the ultimate failure of the soldiers’ efforts.
Key Quote for Discussion
And then the rain began the jolly old rain!