New-York tribune., 1920-02-15
APoet Metamorphosed by War
sAssoon's Lifting Songs Have Given Wav to
Swift and illuminating Pictures
Bv Louis Unterrneyer

- ing his brusque, intensified
.oetry. Then the years seem to pile
q, hin and centuries Of poignance are
etched on his boyish face. This poet,
rso at vsrious stages has been a
srft.Y Of mild. idyllic verse. a keen
huntsr,an, a soldier. a recorder Of in
..nsi,ies, has many admirations. But
he swears by four gods who. strangely
enough, are not In the literary galaxy,
Thsy are the three great BIS and one
s.her, who But Sassoon has paid
HI. own tribute in the first verse of
Dead Musicians:
Prom you, Beethoven. Bach. Mozart,
The substance of my dreams took FIRE:
You built cathedrals intm heart,
And lit my pinnacled desire.
You we're the ardour and the bright
Procession OF my thoughts toward
prayer.
Yoa we're the wrath of storm, the
light
On distan, citadels aaare"
1t does not take much probing to
discover that Sassoon. had the choice
been bis, would rather have been a
musician than poet. "A person who
las no feeling for music" he said
sstes a Buhhg concert, sis like one
shO goes through life minus one of his
senses" This melodic passion surges
Underneath all his lines even the most
.crtured ard spasmodic gaspings in
"counter- Attack Fierce. interrupted
sInost stranged. an exaltation rises
froHt Sasscon 5 poetry like an overtone
ringing above cacophonies.
W A Startling Rise
Nothing in recent literature is more
startling than the sudden rise of Sas-
soon--the man whom the war changed
rom lifting minor poet to the author
vhose swift and terrible illuminations
hsye been ranked with Latzko's Men
ID War and Barbussc's "Under Fire"
ia'his homage he loved-snd initiated
Browning, Swinburne, Rossetti and
even the most limp and amorphous
poets Of the 'a0s. Between 1906 and
1917, In the midst Of tennis. piano
playing and reading, Sassoon brought
out some seven volumes; privately
printed books bearing such perfumed
md semi-precious titles as "Hyacinth,"
Melodies "Orpheus In Doelyrium."
Then came the war, and. leaving the
library and the hunting field, Sassoon
saisted as a private in the Sussex
Yeomanry II entered" says Sassoon,
Nth a cross between a frown and
'damefaced grin, with sort of
happy warrior feeling; like many
otAers, Was swept by wave of tre-
aeadOus emotlonalIsm. Never having
sao. as much as rabbit in my life, /
thought it would be glorious to die
nth gun in my hand. Many Of us
Tsre, you might say, caught bending
sismpeded By a sore OF mob heroism
We hailed war at first because it dis
grhed and shook Up a static and al
most stagnant world. 1t was this
mood this release Of physical energy
ma. prompted Julian Grenfel's poem
'lno~ Battle and Rupert Brooke's
sonnet-sequence 1914"
And Sassoon's-? I inquired.
Well" he said, you'll find it in
one Of my earliest war poems, 'Abso-
!usien. 1t was q mood, strong while
!; lasted, but one that could not sur
I'VE was In the Bloody show for
our and a half years" Sassoon
neglected TO say that he rose to the
snk of captain, served three times in
france, once in Palestine. had four
rounds, was decorated with the Mill
aFy Cross for bringing in wounded
On the battlefield and was recon-
'ended for an even higher distinc-
ION Things began to happen in
Hde / had been reading only the most
lgoissic papers-and believing them.
and then, slowly, was changed from
alolly young enthusiast TO hater of
sefgthne that masked it's hypocrisy
ahder the false slogans and window
a'esslng OF war 1t didn't take US
0lg to get fed up with what Mr.. Con-
ag'cy Dawson so beautifully calls
Inc Glory of the Trenches There
sss one thing that life in the trenches
stamped on us--and that was the utter
'aseaesa, the depravity and horrible
"nlty Of all warfare"
Called 1t Shell Shock
u was at this period of Sassoon's
NE That he wrote his most incisivs
sne .lronic lines. Verses like "The
fleet They" "Does 1t Matter p
now to Die" found their inevitable
'''nax IN that magnificent protesta-
'lcp ITO Any Dead Officer" 1t was
1a'asai that from these Sassoon
'"Ouid turn to the political aspects of
we war. In the letter that caused
'aen frantic shaking OF heads and
a'"mately ar embarrassed debate in
'as house Of Commons, the aroused
pOe'~ anticipating the disillusioned
'aealists and belated skeptcs, wrote
tae purpose for which / and my
'''ow soldiers entered upon this war
s"eu4o have been so clearly stated az
" nave made it impossible to change
am protesting not SO much
's~nst the conduct CT the war as
,sainst the political errors and In
'sesslties for which the fghting men
s'e being sacrificed"