"Reconciliation" was a war poem by Siegfried Sassoon. Written in November 1918, around the time the Armistice was signed,[2] and in response to it,[3] it is notable for its sympathy towards German soldiers. Sassoon's major theme is that all victories in war are pyrrhic, where everybody—including the victors—suffering.[4] The poem is addressed to German mothers, whose "heroes" were "loyal and brave"; while they "fought like brutes", suggests Sassoon, German motherhood "nourished hatred, harsh and blind". Critic Patrick Campbell has noted that the latter phrase may also be seen as a description of Sassoon's own war poetry, being "motivated and infused by anger".[4] Campbell notes that, by 1917, such was the paranoia about the possible presence of spies in Britain that Sassoon knew his description of brave Germans was unpopular with the public.[5] The poem has been described as "indicative of his response" to the increasing calls for vengeance and reparations that followed the Armistice.[6]
References edit
- ^ "Reconciliation | First World War Poetry Digital Archive". ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk.
- ^ Sanford Sternlicht (1993). Siegfried Sassoon. Twayne. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-8057-7021-6.
- ^ John Bremer (31 May 2012). C.S. Lewis, Poetry, and the Great War 1914-1918. Lexington Books. pp. 184–. ISBN 978-0-7391-7153-0.
- ^ a b Patrick Campbell (30 July 2007). Siegfried Sassoon: A Study of the War Poetry. McFarland. pp. 77–. ISBN 978-0-7864-3244-8.
- ^ Patrick Campbell (30 July 2007). Siegfried Sassoon: A Study of the War Poetry. McFarland. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-7864-3244-8.
- ^ John Stuart Roberts (1999). Siegfried Sassoon: (1886-1967). Richard Cohen Books. ISBN 978-1-86066-151-8.