Theme Analysis of Siegfried Sassoon's and Rupert Brooke's Poem Through Diction.

ABSTRACT

Dalam skripsi ini saya membahas dan membandingkan tiga puisi tentang
Perang Dunia I karya Rupert Brooke dengan tiga puisi tentang Perang Dunia I
karya Siegfried Sassoon. Keenam puisi ini menceritakan tentang sudut pandang
kedua pujangga tersebut tentang perang tersebut.
Setelah membaca keenam puisi tersebut, saya memutuskan untuk
membahas tema yang diangkat oleh kedua pujangga. Saya membahas pandangan
mereka yang berbeda terhadap Perang Dunia I melalui diksi yang digunakan
dalam puisi mereka.
Sebagai simpulan, saya berpendapat bahwa pandangan Rupert Brooke dan
Siegfried Sassoon yang berbeda terhadap perang tersebut disebabkan oleh
pengalaman mereka yang berbeda selama perang berlangsung. Puisi karya Rupert
Brooke meromantisasi perang dan menonjolkan rasa kepahlawanan dan
nasionalisme para tentara yang berjuang untuk negara mereka, sedangkan
Siegfried Sassoon menunjukkan pandangan realistis mengenai perang lewat puisipuisinya yang mengangkat sisi buruk perang beserta efek sampingnya yang
negatif bagi para tentara.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................... i
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................... ii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study..............................................................................1
Statement of the Problem .............................................................................4
Purpose of the Study ....................................................................................4
Method of Research .....................................................................................4
Organization of the Thesis ...........................................................................4
CHAPTER TWO: THEME ANALYSIS OF RUPERT
BROOKE’S POEMS THROUGH DICTION .........................................6
CHAPTER THREE: THEME ANALYSIS OF SIEGFRIED
SASSOON’S POEMS THROUGH DICTION ......................................17
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ..................................................................30
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................36
APPENDICES:
Rupert Brooke’s Poems .............................................................................39
Siegfried Sassoon’s Poems ........................................................................41
Biography of the Authors ...........................................................................44

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
World War I that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November
1918 generated suffering throughout the world, most especially Europe. This war,
also known as the “Great War,” was a war between the Central Powers countries:
Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and Turkey; and the allies that consist of
the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, Belgium, Serbia, Greece, Romania, Montenegro,
Portugal, Italy, and Japan. Billion of men and women died during this war.
Brooke and Sassoon’s involvement in war provided them the chance and
materials to write about the war. Their strong images and different points of view
about war that are shown in their works are known globally and acknowledged as
some of the famous poems ever written.
Rupert Brooke was already famous during his study in King’s College. He

joined other famous poets, philosophers and writers in Bloomsbury Group, a
group of famous writers which consisted of Virginia Woolf, John Maynard

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Keynes, E.M. Forster and Lytton Strachey. He was also a part of another literary
group known as the Georgian Poets and was one of the most important figures in
Dymock poets, which are associated with the Gloucestershire village of Dymock,
where he spent some time before the war. His war poems came to public attention
when The Times Literary Supplement, a famous magazine for literary works
during 1915, quoted two of his sonnets “V: The Soldier” and “III: The Dead.”
The other poet I chose to analyze for the comparison is Siegfried Sassoon.
In contrast to Brooke, who brought patriotism theme in his poems, “Sassoon
wrote of the horror and brutality of trench warfare and contemptuously satirized
generals, politicians, and churchmen for their incompetence and blind support of
the war” (“Siegfried Sassoon 1886 - 1967”). Sassoon was known for his satirical
and realistic way of describing war as well as for his use of imagery in describing
his trauma and feelings towards war. On the other hand, Brooke’s poems were
seen as a romantic way of portraying war.

Both Brooke and Sassoon gave a lot of contributions to the literary world.
They have inspired other literary figures; one of them was the poet John Gillespie
Magee Jr., who was inspired by Rupert Brooke so that he wrote a poem entitled
“Sonnet to Rupert Brooke.”
These two men of literature wrote a lot of war themed poems. I only chose
a few poems which are notable and comparable from both poets. Brooke’s poems,
which themes are mostly about the soldier’s patriotism of war are variant to
Sassoon’s satirical poems, which themes mostly talk about the shell-shock trauma
the soldier experienced and the horror of the battlefield itself. Brooke’s romantic
and patriotic description of war in “The Soldier,” “III The Dead” and “Peace”
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have gained a lot of interests considering how he strived to romanticize war and
how the words in his poems are well composed, while Sassoon’s “Survivors,”
“Counter-Attack,” and “Suicide in Trenches” are famous for their gruesome and
traumatic images of war—a violent contrast to Brooke’s romantic poems.
Sassoon’s works are satirical and realistic as Sassoon himself had been in the
battlefield and injured. He was sent to Craiglockhart Hospital, where he wrote his
gloomy poems of war which were based on his experiences in the front line.

The themes are the most dominant element in each poem I chose and they
are seen through diction. It helps reveal the different perspective of each author
towards the war. Theme as described in the online Oxford Dictionaries is “an idea
that recurs in or pervades a work of art or literature.” (“Theme”), and diction is
“the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing” (“Diction”).
I chose theme through diction to show the authors’ different points of view
of World War I itself: Brooke with his patriotism theme and romantic portrayal of
war, while Sassoon with his satirical and gloomy theme of war. Their diction
show what they were trying to convey about war, how war was portrayed in their
own points of view, and how they are involved in war themselves.
The approach I chose is formalism, which focuses solely on the poems
because the themes of the poems are revealed through the diction used by the
authors.

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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problems that I am going to discuss are:
1. What are the themes of the poems?

2. How do the diction of the poems help reveal the themes?

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Based on the problems above, the purposes of this study are:
1. To reveal the themes of the poems.
2. To show how the diction of the poems help reveal the themes.

METHOD OF RESEARCH
The method of research that I use is library research, beginning by reading
the chosen poems of Rupert Brooke’s and Siegfried Sassoon’s. The research is
continued by analyzing the primary texts using the information and materials from
the Internet to support my opinion and analysis. Lastly, I draw some conclusions
of what has been discussed.

ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS
This thesis consists of four chapters, preceded by the Table of Contents
and the Abstract. Chapter One is the Introduction, which consists of the
Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study,
the Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis. In Chapter Two, I
analyze the themes of Rupert Brooke’s poems through diction. In Chapter Three, I

analyze the themes of Siegfried Sassoon’s poems through diction. In Chapter four,
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the conclusion, I conclude each poem analyzed in this thesis. This thesis ends with
the Bibliography and the Appendices, consisting of the Synopsis of the Novel and
the Biography of the Author.

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

After analyzing six poems of Rupert Brooke’s and Siegfried Sassoon’s, I
have come to some conclusions. In my opinion, it is clear that Sassoon’s and
Brooke’s involvement in World War I has influenced both poets in writing their
poems. This is revealed through the dictions each poet chose for their poems.
In the first poem, “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke, he showed how one’s

death for his/her country is patriotic. It is shown through the theme, which is:
“One’s sacrifice for his/her own country in war is patriotic.” Brooke managed
to draw the readers away from the gruesomeness of war by choosing the dictions
“flowers,” “blest by suns,” “happy,” “laughter,” “friends,” “gentleness,” and the
“peace” to show the good things that the soldier will gain once he passes away,
which gives us a rather happy and beautiful imagery rather than a gloomy and
gruesome one. Not to mention that he also repeatedly mentioned the word
“England” throughout the poem, giving more sense of nationality and patriotism
in the poem.

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In the second poem, “The Dead,” Brooke succeeded to affirm sacrifice,
honor and nobility through the poem. The theme for this poem is “One’s sacrifice
in war will give the country and themselves nobility and honor.” The soldiers
give up his “serene” time and the “sons they gave,” which implies to their future,
to go to war. For this sacrifice they will gain “honor” for themselves and for their
country as Brooke stated that “honor” has come back just like a “king” that rules
all over the country. They will also have regained their “nobleness” by making

this sacrifice. They will have their own “heritage,” which is a free and noble
country.
In the last poem of Brooke that I have analyzed, “Peace,” he showed the
readers how war has given the soldiers a sense of inner peace. The theme of this
poem is “One can actually find peace during war if he/she is brave and
willing to fight and die for their country.” These soldiers who are ready to go to
war have “sharpened power,” “clear eye,” and blessed with the “youth.” They are
willing to go like “swimmers into cleanness leaping,” like a jump into the water.
Brooke emphasized their willingness by choosing the word “leap” to suggest a
playful vibe; they bravely volunteer to join the war. These soldiers with their
“laughing hearts” are not afraid of death for they will find a “release” which
implies peace, if they die in war. They will no longer know the “shame” they had
in their past, and the “agony” the soldiers feel during war will end because
“death” will take it away. They will finally find peace.
The next poem is “Survivors” by Siegfried Sassoon. Sassoon’s satirical
and sarcastic point of view of war is seen in this poem which he wrote during his
stay in Craiglockhart hospital in 1917. The theme of this poem is “The traumatic
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effect war leaves in one’s life lasts a lifetime.” In this poem, Sassoon
sarcastically said that the injured soldiers who go to war will “no doubt” heal, and
that they are “longing to go out again.” But it is all a lie, as Sassoon followed each
of the phrases with “stammering, disconnected talk” and “scared faces.” The
soldiers’ physical wounds might heal, but they would be left stammering, shocked
and scared, which are the symptoms of a shell-shock patient; they are wounded
psychologically. Their nights are “haunted” by “the ghosts of friends who died”
and their dreams “drip with murder.” The effect does not only apply to the
soldiers, but also to those who are related to them, like their children. War has
taken away their fathers, leaving them fatherless, “broken,” and “mad.”
The next poem by Siegfried Sassoon is “Counter-Attack.” The theme of
this poem is “No matter how hard one fights during a battle, the fight is still
helpless and futile.” The helplessness and futility are shown through the dictions
in the poem as Sassoon began the poem by describing the soldiers’ condition in
the front line. Their faces are “pallid;” they are “unshaved” and “thirsty,” “blinded
with smoke,” which show that they are unhealthy. Sassoon even used “trodden
sand-bags” as a comparison for the dead soldiers’ body because they are ignored
and piling up like trodden sand-bags. Again, this comparison suggests
helplessness because no one is taking care of the bodies due to the chaos and
“clamour” in the battlefield that Sassoon compared to “gusts from hell.” The

soldiers are “muted,” “dizzy,” struck by a “galloping fear,” not able to speak or
fight to protect themselves. The soldiers’ fate ends as they are “[choking]” and
“bleeding to death” as no one helps them. And the futility is shown clearly at the
end of the stanza when Brooke stated “the counter attack had failed.”
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The last poem of Sassoon that I analyzed is “Suicide in The Trenches.”
This poem talks about how war takes away joy and innocence of life. The theme
of this poem is “War can ruin one’s innocence and enjoyment of life.” This
theme is seen through the dictions Sassoon chose. He opened the poem by telling
a story of a “simple soldier boy” who grins at “empty joy,” “whistled early with
the lark,” and “slept soundly” although the night is lonely and dark. These
dictions show how innocent and naïve the boy is before he goes to war. He turns
into a “[cowing]” and “glum” soldier in a cold “winter trenches” that are filled
with “crumps and lice.” He feels so intimidated and dejected that he “put a bullet
through his brain,” ending his life in such a horrible way because of war. Sassoon
ended the poem with a bitter, sarcastic and angry tone as he stated that those who
do not go to war, which then he compares war to “hell,” will never know and
experience the horror and horrific images of war that take away the soldier’s
“laughter” and “youth.”
Having analyzed all the poems, I found that these two poets had an
obvious difference in their point of views of war. Brooke romanticized war,
meaning making war seems more attractive and interesting than it really is; he
wrote patriotic themed poems because of his failure to reach the battlefield as he
passed away on his way to war, hence the positive imagery of war he brought in
his poems using the dictions such as “happy,” “gentleness,” “peace” and
“laughter” to romanticize the war. On the other hand, Sassoon had a realistic point
of view of war. He showed the readers the gruesome and horrifying imagery of
war he experienced himself during World War I, and it is displayed in his poems.
Sassoon’s dictions are in contrast to Brooke’s. Sassoon used "stammering,
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disconnected talk," "scared faces," "clamour," "gusts from hell," to realistically
portray the war.
Although the two poets have a different point of view of war, both of them
also share a few similarities. Both of them were British, both are soldiers and sent
by the government to war, and wrote poems about war. Their themes are different;
however, both of them focus on a public view of war. As stated in Sassoon’s
poem “Suicide in The Trenches,” he was well aware of the people who support
the war. From what he wrote in the poem, he realized that there are people who
cheer for the soldiers who are marching to go to war. Those are the people who
do not know how gruesome and traumatic war can be. In my opinion, those
people, who are caught up by the government’s propaganda of war, seem to think
that going to war is patriotic, as seen in Brooke’s poems’ themes. Both poets
brought people’s points of view of the World War I in their poems. They can be
said to represent the people who are for and against the war.
As of the figure of speech, both poems mostly use metaphor and
symbolism to create an imagery of war based on their own point of view. For
example, Sassoon used the word “hell” as the metaphor of war, the word “lark” to
symbolize a joyful persona, while Brooke symbolized the beauty of England by
the word “flowers,” or referring to the men who do not want to go to war as
having “sick hearts.”
Last but not least, analyzing these poems has provided me with some
knowledge about World War I and how it affected the people involved. The two
poets have provided me with images and description of war in England through
the poems. In my opinion, each poet has their own way in describing war and
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neither of them are better than the other; they both succeed to show the readers
about the people’s point of view of war. At first, I agreed with Sassoon on his
point of view about war, but after conducting more research, my view of these
poets has undergone quite a change. I now understand why Brooke romanticized
the war and why Sassoon wrote a satirical and gloomy poems on the war.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Texts:
“1914 I: Peace” poemhunter.com. N.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
“1914 III: The Dead” poemhunter.com. N.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
“Counter-Attack” poemhunter.com. N.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
“Suicide in The Trenches” poemhunter.com. N.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
“Survivors” poemhunter.com. N.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
“The Soldier” poemhunter.com. N.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

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“Gallop” Oxford Dictionaries Language Matters. N.d. Web. 2 June. 2015.
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“Tread” Oxford Dictionaries Language Matters. N.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
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