Explore the ways in which ‘They’ by Sassoon relates to ‘Peace’ by Brookes’

Sassoon’s poem ‘They’ laughs at the authorities and directly shows upon the impact of war on the lives of soldiers and on its ridiculousness. ‘Peace’ by Brookes is more as if a sonnet to death, in which the drained soldier souls are showed wanting to die than to continue this pointless life. Both have similarities in showing how war affects an individual, but both do it in a different way. ‘They’ – two perspectives = authority and soldier perspective on the impacts of war on individuals and physical impacts on soldiers, ‘Peace’ – psychical impacts of war on individuals leading to despair and desire for death.

‘They’ by Sassoon has a humanistic approach and viewpoint of the War. He uses simple wording to pursue his ides, which makes it easy to read and understand. The simplicity makes the meaning of the poem stand out. It has a sarcastic tone, most visible in ‘The ways of God are strange!’ said by the bishop in the last line. ‘Peace’ is a slightly more complicated poem, The poem shows us the biased view of the church (authority) on war ‘In a just cause, they lead the last attack On Anti-Christ’. Death is mentioned in ‘They’ as a someone they have challenged and won over. ‘They have challenged Death and dared him face to face’ capital D in Death – important, equal, big, strong(er), ...compared to soldiers. Death is also mentioned in ‘Peace’ by Brooke, but is pictured more as the end only, not something one can win over. ‘The worst friend and enemy is but Death’- enemy the same as in Sassoon, but friend isn’t mentioned in ‘They’. Death as a friend – gives an end to the suffering. War changes priorities, makes death a solution, a choice that one would not consider in normal life. ‘When the boys come back they will not be the same’ (They) - war changes a person. This idea is also mentioned in ‘Peace’ by Brooke in lines 2-8. It seems as if a transformation takes place between the 2-8th line. Transformation of the soldiers, the young boys that went into war ‘caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping’ – the war stopped their lives when they were still young, ’wakened us from sleeping’- took them out from normal life – dream, simple, easy (compared to war) and ‘threw’ them into the reality – war, death. Here they were drained and ruined by the despair and nonsense of war for an individual. ‘Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move’ – soldiers are starting to loose the sense of this all, honour is no longer strong enough to make them fight for their countries, they are loosing them point in being in war, buy seeing what it really takes. In ‘They’ there is a definite idea of how war changes an individual. ‘We’re none of us the same!’ but in this poem it is meant more in the physical way ‘For George lost his legs, and Bill is stone blind...’ than in the psychical way as in ‘Peace’. In ‘Peace’ a feeling of a psychical battle of the soldier occurs. The feeling of despair and of the soldier loosing the sense of love and positive emotions. ‘emptiness of love!’ ‘no ill, no grief...’ ‘Nothing to shake the laughing heart’s long peace there’. The war has a strong psychical impact and ones who survive physically will never be the same psychically, as the things they experienced changed their view on the world completely
Both these poems show upon the impacts war has on human beings. Sassoon’s poem is more simplistic and easier to understand. Yet it has a certain hidden sarcasm about it, laughing at the higher positioned ones, which never had a direct experience with war. Brooke’s poem ‘Peace’ points out the feelings of despair that occur throughout war. These feelings are so strong that they lead to soldiers pleading for death, rather than to continue on living the life of a blunt instrument of killing. ‘Peace’ is darker and deeper than ‘They’. It deals with the emotional confusion and human emptiness that take place in a soldier’s life. Also, ‘They’ conveys the idea of death, pain and the nonsense of war but in a more straightforward even funny way. Sassoon makes fun of the authorities, whereas Brooke concentrates on emotions and the emotional change war has on a soldier. Sassoon does not hide behind metaphors but unambiguously points out the reality, which makes his poetry so strong. The cause of war is in the leaders, which don’t experience its reality.

Appendix

‘Peace’

Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the little emptiness of love!
Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release there,
Where there's no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending,
Naught broken save this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.

Rupert Brooke


'They'
The Bishop tells us: 'When the boys come back'
They will not be the same; for they'll have fought
'In a just cause: they lead the last attack
'On Anti-Christ; their comrades' blood has bought
'New right to breed an honourable race,
'They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.'

'We're none of us the same!' the boys reply.
'For George lost both his legs; and Bill's stone blind;
'Poor Jim's shot through the lungs and like to die;
'And Bert's gone syphilitic: you'll not find
'A chap who's served that hasn't found some change.
' And the Bishop said: 'The ways of God are strange!'
Siegfried Sassoon