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| Poems on war: Andrew Motion is inspired by Siegfried Sassoon | Poems on war: Andrew Motion is inspired by Siegfried Sassoon |
| (4 days later) | |
| In protesting as he did about the continuance of the war, Siegfried Sassoon put himself at considerable risk of being court martialled. So this document is proof of great courage as well as conviction – courage akin to the bravery he had already shown and would show again as a fighting soldier, and to the unflinchingness of his poems. As things turned out, he was spared this sort of judgment and sent to Craiglockhart War hospital instead, where he met Wilfred Owen and helped him to discover his true identity as a poet. His letter of protest is a pivotal document, then, as well as a powerful and poignant one. | |
| "A Moment of Reflection" (28 June 1914) by Andrew Motion (with acknowledgments to Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West) | "A Moment of Reflection" (28 June 1914) by Andrew Motion (with acknowledgments to Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West) |
| Although one assassin has already tried and failed to blow him to pieces, Archduke Ferdinand has let it be known he will soon complete his journey as planned along the quay at Sarajevo, | Although one assassin has already tried and failed to blow him to pieces, Archduke Ferdinand has let it be known he will soon complete his journey as planned along the quay at Sarajevo, |
| but for a moment will pause here, at the window of a private room in the Town Hall. | but for a moment will pause here, at the window of a private room in the Town Hall. |
| He needs time to recover his composure after finding the blood of his aide-de-camp splattered over the manuscript of the speech he delivered so well earlier this morning; he needs to look around him. And indeed, the prospect of an Austrian brewery in the distance is reassuring, likewise the handsome red bricks of the barracks filled with several thousand soldiers of the fatherland. | He needs time to recover his composure after finding the blood of his aide-de-camp splattered over the manuscript of the speech he delivered so well earlier this morning; he needs to look around him. And indeed, the prospect of an Austrian brewery in the distance is reassuring, likewise the handsome red bricks of the barracks filled with several thousand soldiers of the fatherland. |
| This is how those who survive him today will remember him: | This is how those who survive him today will remember him: |
| a man thinking his thoughts while waiting until his wife can join him – the Countess Chotek with her pinched yet puddingy features, to whom he will shortly utter his last words, 'Sophie, live for our children', into deaf ears. | a man thinking his thoughts while waiting until his wife can join him – the Countess Chotek with her pinched yet puddingy features, to whom he will shortly utter his last words, 'Sophie, live for our children', into deaf ears. |
| As for his own memories, the Head of the Tourist Bureau has now arrived and taken it upon himself to suggest the Archduke might be happy to recall the fact that only last week he bagged his three thousandth stag, | As for his own memories, the Head of the Tourist Bureau has now arrived and taken it upon himself to suggest the Archduke might be happy to recall the fact that only last week he bagged his three thousandth stag, |
| Was this, the Head dares to enquire, with the double-barrelled Mannlicher made for him especially – the same weapon he used to dispatch two thousand one hundred and fifty game birds in a single day, and sixty boars at a hunt led by the Kaiser? | Was this, the Head dares to enquire, with the double-barrelled Mannlicher made for him especially – the same weapon he used to dispatch two thousand one hundred and fifty game birds in a single day, and sixty boars at a hunt led by the Kaiser? |
| These are remarkable achievements, the Head dares to continue, on the same level as the improvement the Archduke has suggested in the hunting of hare, by which the beaters, forming themselves into a wedge-shape, squeeze those notoriously elusive runners towards a particular spot where he can exceed the tally of every other gun. | These are remarkable achievements, the Head dares to continue, on the same level as the improvement the Archduke has suggested in the hunting of hare, by which the beaters, forming themselves into a wedge-shape, squeeze those notoriously elusive runners towards a particular spot where he can exceed the tally of every other gun. |
| In the silence that follows it is not obvious whether the Archduke has heard the question. He has heard it. He is more interested, however, in the fact that his mind is now stuffed with an almost infinite number of ghosts of woodcock, quail, pheasant and partridge, wild boars bristling flank to flank, mallard and teal and wild geese dangling from the antlers of stags, layer after layer of rabbits and other creatures that were mere vermin – | In the silence that follows it is not obvious whether the Archduke has heard the question. He has heard it. He is more interested, however, in the fact that his mind is now stuffed with an almost infinite number of ghosts of woodcock, quail, pheasant and partridge, wild boars bristling flank to flank, mallard and teal and wild geese dangling from the antlers of stags, layer after layer of rabbits and other creatures that were mere vermin – |
| a tally that he expects will increase once the business of today has been accomplished. | a tally that he expects will increase once the business of today has been accomplished. |
| Siegfried Sassoon | Siegfried Sassoon |
| I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. | I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. |
| I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow-soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation. | I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow-soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation. |
| I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. | I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. |
| I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. | I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. |
| On behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is being practised on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize. | On behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is being practised on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize. |
| • Siegfried Sassoon's statement to his commanding officer explaining his grounds for refusing to serve further in the army (Bradford Pioneer, 27 July 1917) | • Siegfried Sassoon's statement to his commanding officer explaining his grounds for refusing to serve further in the army (Bradford Pioneer, 27 July 1917) |
| • This article was amended on 29 October 2013 to correct the homophone in the opening sentence. | |
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