The Rear Guard
by Siegfried Sassoon
(Hindenburg Line, April 1917)
Groping along the tunnel, step by step,
He winked his prying torch with patching glare
From side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air.Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes and too vague to know;a
A mirror smashed, the mattress from a bed;
And he, exploring fifty feet below
The rosy gloom of battle overhead.Tripping, he grabbed the wall; saw someone lie
Humped at his feet, half-hidden by a rug.
And stooped to give the sleeper’s arm a tug.
“I’m looking for headquarters.” No reply.
“God blast your neck!” (For days he’d had no sleep.)
“Get up and guide me through this stinking place.”
Savage, he kicked a soft, unanswering heap,
And flashed his beam across the livid face
Terribly glaring up, whose eyes yet wore
Agony dying hard of ten days before;
And fists of fingers clutched a blackening wound.Alone he staggered on until he found
Dawn’s ghost that filtered down a shafted stair
To the dazed, muttering creatures underground
Who hear the boom of shells in muffled sound.
At last, with sweat and horror in his hair,
He climbed through darkness to the twilight air,
Unloading hell behind him step by step.
Summary of The Rear Guard
- Popularity of “The Rear Guard”: The poem ‘The Rear Guard’ is written by Siegfried Sassoon, an English soldier, writer, and poet. It is an excellent poetic piece about being a soldier. Although it was written a year before its publication, the poem made its first appearance in his collection, Counter-attack and Other Poems, which was published in 1918. The poem skillfully captures the emotions experienced by a soldier stationed in the rearguard, as he endures the devastating effects of war on this particular front. The beauty of the poem lies in highlighting the sufferings of soldiers.
- “The Rear Guard” As a Representative of War and Destruction: The poet opens the poem with a PostScript of when it was written and puts the soldier on the battlefield. The battlefield of Hindenburg serves as the backdrop for his first-person perspective, where he recounts the traumatic and brutal experiences of trench warfare between the Germans and the Allied forces during World War I. The poem describes how they experienced the groping journey through tunnels amid dead bodies and human stench. The soldier is finding his way with his torch, smelling the acrid smell of the gunpowder and human flesh. When the soldier moves in the tunnel fifty feet blow, he comes across tins, bottles, and different broken things. Upon touching the wall for support, he is startled by a dead body. Despite the unsettling encounter, he bravely attempts to communicate with the lifeless form before ultimately deciding to press on. After that, he sees the livid face of the dead body, watches this dead by staring at eyes, and sees the agony in them. He moves to the next and feels the arrival of the dawn as if it is a ghost finding the soldiers living in the tunnels. Finally, he charges forward to unleash chaos upon his adversaries.
- Major Themes in “The Rear Guard”: A soldier’s experience of dead bodies in the trenches, destruction of war, and individual disgust are three major themes of the poem. The poet depicts his own encounters in the trenches during the Battle of Arras. Even in the trenches, the devastation caused by the battle lingers, as he stumbles upon a deceased body and is filled with revulsion. This destruction of war makes him unleash another round of destruction despite feeling disgusted at it.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used In The Rear Guard
The use of literary devices in poetry creates a seamless flow and resonates with readers. The poet also used some literary devices in this poem whose analysis is as follows.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the sound of /e/ in “Groping along the tunnel, step by step” the sound of /i in “Humped at his feet, half-hidden by a rug.”
- Alliteration: The poem shows the use of alliteration in the shape of initial consonant sounds of the neighboring words such as the sound of /s/ in “saw someone” and the sound of /f/ in “fifty feet.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the sound of /g/ and /s/ in “And stooped to give the sleeper’s arm a tug” and the sound of /g/ and /d/ in “Agony dying hard of ten days before.”
- Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example;
Alone he staggered on until he found
Dawn’s ghost that filtered down a shafted stair
To the dazed, muttering creatures underground
Who hear the boom of shells in muffled sound.
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. Siegfried Sassoon has used imagery in this poem such as “A mirror smashed, the mattress from a bed”, “The rosy gloom of battle overhead”, and “And flashed his beam across the livid face.”
- Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects that are different. The poet has used the eyes of the dead soldier and dawn as metaphors, comparing them with ghosts.
- Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from literal meanings. The poem shows the use of symbols such as headquarter, trench, heap, and hell to show the destruction of war.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in The Rear Guard
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- Diction and Tone: The poem shows the use of descriptive diction of war with a serious, tragic, and somewhat disgusting tone.
- Rhyme Scheme: The poem follows ABB, ABAB, and so on in all four stanzas.
- Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are a total four stanzas with a different number of verses.
Quotes to be Used
These lines from “The Rear Guard” are appropriate to quote when describing a battle zone.
Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes and too vague to know;
A mirror smashed, the mattress from a bed;
And he, exploring fifty feet below
The rosy gloom of battle overhead.