Alfred Sasoon's poetry
Sassoon's bitterness against the war is made clear through his poetry, which is filled with his resentment against war, the futility of it and the high price that had to be paid. In the poem 'A working party' Sassoon's feelings towards the futility of war and the waste of life that war brings about is made clear through his use of his language and the way he makes the reader feel as if they know the man in the poem. In this and many other poems, Sassoon uses irony and heavy sarcasm to make his true feelings known. In 'The Kiss', the entire poem has a very sarcastic tone, and the poem could actually be read as a pro-war poem, but it actually shows Sassoon's hatred for the war and how bitter he was about it. He calls his bullets and bayonet "brother lead and sister steel', saying 'in these I trust'. This is a perfect example of how Sassoon used sarcasm, because at face value, the poem seems psychopathic, as if it was written by a man that actually enjoyed killing and the harsh conditions of the war, when in actual fact it is a poem that is against the war.