Honor and Respect

Base Details - Siegfried Sassoon

If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,

I’d live with scarlet Majors at the Base,

And speed glum heroes up the line to death.

You’d see me with my puffy petulant face,

Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,

Reading the Roll of Honour. “Poor young chap,”

I’d say--“I used to know his father well;

Yes, we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap.”

And when the war is done and youth stone dead,

I’d toddle safely home and die--in bed.

This poem is extremely blunt and accusing, attacking majors in a war. Obviously, the author is anti-war, but there is more to it than that. He does have respect for regular soldiers, but when it comes to their leaders, he holds no regard for them.

A lot of this attitude be seen in the chosen diction. “Puffy”, “petulant”, “guzzling and gulping”, and “toddle” all bring to mind some bumbling, lumbering animal, not a man of great skill and esteem. “Bald, and short of breath” suggest someone frail and on the verge of death, making the action of sending youth to their deaths a tragic and ironic one. However, the most heart-wrenching word choice (to me) comes in this line: “Yes, we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap.” The majors are so disconnected from the battle at hand that they think of it as a scrap. What kind of a scrap comes with a death toll?

Another haunting aspect is that soldiers die with honor, but majors die in safety. Is one better than the other? Well, “honor” isn’t really as honored as it seems. “Poor young chap--I used to know his father well.” This is all a soldier gets as a requiem. There is nothing personal here, only a quick sentiment about his last name. He is forced to death, then denied a proper mourning. Meanwhile, majors dine and drink in “the best hotel” and are rewarded with a safe death. This is unfair and unjust, and for that, Sassoon holds no respect for them.