Dulce Et
Decorum Est
by Jenni
Orme
As the 100
year anniversary of the First World War approaches, the lives of those who
served are being re-discovered and commemorated. An element of this that is
often overlooked is the relationships between men serving alongside each other.
Their camaraderie, close friendships and in some cases romantic love can be
found in personal papers left behind, and the work of the war poets leave a particularly
rich wealth of evidence.
Two of the most famous First World War poets met while convalescing in an Edinburgh hospital in 1917. Their close friendship and shared sexual orientation has raised the profile of gay soldiers fighting in the Great War and their experiences, both as soldiers and as men.
Two of the most famous First World War poets met while convalescing in an Edinburgh hospital in 1917. Their close friendship and shared sexual orientation has raised the profile of gay soldiers fighting in the Great War and their experiences, both as soldiers and as men.
'Sweet and
fitting it is'
Wilfred Owen (Wikipedia) |
In October
1915 a young man called Wilfred Owen returned to England from teaching in France
to join the British forces. Full of the same belief in the war as the majority
of his fellow volunteers, he stepped forward to defend King and country.
By late
1917, this same young man had become disillusioned with the purpose of war and
all the horrors it entailed. He expressed his frustration through poetry, in
what were to become some of the most well known personal records of the First
World War.
In August
1914, another aspiring poet, Siegfried Sassoon, had enlisted to serve. Also soon
disillusioned by his experiences, he put pen to paper and publically denounced British
leaders and what he saw as their greedy intentions for the Empire.
Siegfried Sassoon, May 1915 (Wikipedia) |
In 1917,
these two met, and their relationship and influence on each other had a long
lasting effect on their work and the legacy of the war poets.
Owen was 22
years old and an aspiring poet when he signed up and was eventually Commissioned
as an Officer in to the Manchester Regiment. His service record is held at The
National Archives and tells of the trauma he suffered on the frontline (1). His
letters home from the start of the war did not 'gloss over' his experiences for
the sake of his family, like many others had. Instead he wrote to his mother of
the brutal conditions he and his fellow servicemen existed in:
"Those
fifty hours [in a tightly-packed dug-out] were the agony of my happy life…
Every ten minutes on Sunday afternoon seemed an hour... I nearly broke down and
let myself drown in the water that was now slowing rising over my knees."
(2)
Owen
suffered greatly on the front line and through his personal papers, poetry and service
record describing his experiences in detail, they are better known than most
others. Late one night in March 1917 he fell down a well and, suffering from
concussion, was sent to recover at a casualty clearing station. A month after
his return to active duty in April 1917, Owen was blown in to the air by an explosion
while sleeping. He was subsequently trapped with the remains of a fellow
officer, the experience of which haunted him long afterwards:
"… it
was not the Bosche that worked me up, nor the explosives, but it was living so
long by poor old Cock Robin (as we used to call 2/Lt Gaukroger), who lay not
only near by, but in various places around and about…" (3)
Owen was
eventually sent home to recover from ‘shell shock’, and was put in the care of Craiglockhart
hospital in Edinburgh, where he met his friend and mentor, Siegfried Sassoon.
In contrast
to Owen, who was yet to receive any acknowledgement of his work prior to the
war, Siegfried Sassoon was a published poet when he joined up. In 1916, he was awarded
the Military Cross for .“Conspicuous gallantry during a raid on the enemy’s
trenches,” but was becoming more and more disillusioned with the war and what he
saw as the 'greed' of authorities interested only in expanding the Empire. (4)
In July
1917, a letter was published in The Times by ‘S. Sassoon’ expressing his most anti-war
sentiments. It was also read out in the House of Commons. (5)
“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 believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence
and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest … I believe it
may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at
home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share and which they
have not enough imagination to realise.” Sec. Lt. Siegfried Sassoon, 3rd Batt: Royal
Welsh Fusiliers, July, 1917. (6)
This was a
difficult turn of events for military authorities – a respected, decorated,
published officer speaking out publically against the war – a political
nightmare. Sassoon was in danger of being court-martialled, but thanks to his friend
and fellow poet, Robert Graves, it was accepted that Sassoon's outburst could
be blamed on ‘war neurosis’ and required treatment rather than punishment. (7)
Thus, he found himself sent to Craiglockhart and in to the company of Owen.
Sassoon's medal card showing his Military Cross award on the left hand side. TNA: WO 372/17/169259 |
Owen and
Sassoon
Both Wilfred
Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are widely considered to have had relationships with
men, although there is no evidence to suggest they were romantically involved
with each other.
Sassoon is
more commonly known to have been gay, openly amongst his closest circle, having
had affairs with well-known figures such as Ivor Novello, Stephen Tennant and
Prince Philipp of Hesse, but constrained by the attitudes of his time as he
expresses in his wish to write a book in 1921 (8): “It is to be one of the
stepping-stones across the raging (or lethargic) river of intolerance which
divides creatures of my temperament from a free and unsecretive existence among
their fellow men.” (9)
His marriage
to Hester Gatty in 1933 therefore surprised those friends who knew him, but the
marriage broke down at the end of the Second World War. (10)
His diary
records his feelings for men such as fellow poet Robert Graves: “there was some
vague sexual element lurking in the background of our war-harnessed
relationship. There was always some restless passionate nerve-wracked quality
in my friendship with R.G.” (11)
Both Owen
and Sassoon produced some of their most famous works while at Craiglockhart together.
(12) Sassoon's work in particular reflected on the close ties forged in the trenches
that many could never leave behind, such as the guilt displayed in his poem
Sick leave.
On the
contrary, Owen’s family, particularly his brother, are reported to have removed
any evidence of his sexual orientation from his work and papers after his
death. (13) Owen was besotted with Sassoon, telling his mother, "I am not
worthy to light his [Sassoon's] pipe." (14) As Sassoon's
biographer, Jean Moorcroft Wilson describes: "It is … highly likely that
at his [Owen's] first sight of Sassoon, sitting on his bed in a purplish-blue
dressing-gown, his hero-worship had tipped over into romantic love."
As Owen
himself wrote to Sassoon in November 1917: "We have had some strong sunshine;
and when it strikes anything blue I see you sitting by the bedside as on That
Morning in September." (15) Wilson acknowledges that there is no evidence
that Sassoon's feelings for Owen ever matched Owen's suggested romantic
attachment. Sassoon viewed himself as the mentor, although he also benefitted from
Owen's influence, if not in such a direct manner.
Owen greatly
admired and was inspired by Sassoon's style of writing - his harsh reality reflecting
his true experiences of war. The original copy of Owen’s famous poem 'Dulce et
Decorum Est' (sweet and fitting it is) shows Sassoon's suggestions and
alterations, illustrating his direct impact on Owen's work. (16)
Original copy of 'Dulce et Decorum Est' showing Sassoon's adjustments to Owen's text. |
Sassoon has
been credited with mentoring and influencing Owen’s work to the point that Owen
is now considered a better poet than Sassoon, and one of the strongest ‘voices’
of the First World War, although this may be influenced by his early death and
Sassoon's later, less successful poetry. (17) It is Owen's inscription that
marks the memorial of all the War poets in Westminster Abbey: “My subject is War,
and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.” (18)
Wilfred Owen
was killed in action on 4th November 1918 while Sassoon was in England,
permanently invalided out of service. Notice of his death reached his family on
Armistice Day. Sassoon did not hear of his death for many months and always
struggled to come to terms with it. (19) He later took on the role of editing
Owen's poems to be published, ensuring Owen's success as one of England's
greatest and most harrowing war poets long after his death.
1. The
National Archives (TNA): WO 138/74.
2. Extract
from a letter from Owen to his mother, 1917. Jon Stallworthy, Anthem for doomed
youth: Twelve soldier poets of the First World War, (London: Constable, 2002),
p. 99.
3. Helen
McPhail and Philip Guest, Wilfred Owen, (Yorkshire: Leo Cooper, 1998), p.65.
4. Jean
Moorcroft Wilson, Siegfried Sassoon: The Making of a War Poet, (New York:
Routledge, 1999), p.260.
5. Daniel W.
Hipp, The Poetry of Shell Shock: Wartime Trauma and Healing in Wilfred Owen,
Ivor Gurney and Siegfried Sassoon, (North Carolina: McFarland, 2005), p.161.
6. TNA: WO
339/51440
7. Wilson,
(1999), pp. 383-384.
8. Jean
Moorcroft Wilson. (2003) The Guardian, The Hermit of Heytesbury.
www.theguardian.com/books/003/mar/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview28 [Accessed
03/01/2014].
9. Wilson, (1999),
p. 1.
10. BBC
History, Historic Figures, Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967).
www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/sassoon_siegfried.shtml [Accessed
03/01/2014].
11. Wilson,
(1999), p. 215.
12. McPhail
and Guest, p. 69.
13. Poetry
Foundation, Biography, Wilfred Owen 1893-1918,
www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/wilfred-owen. [Accessed 03/01/2014.
14. Wilson,
(1999), p.407.
15. Wilson,
(1999), p.408.
16. Melissa
Cooper, The Red Animal Project, Poets of the Great War: Siegfried Sassoon and
Wilfred Owen. http://theredanimalproject.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/poets-of-the-great-war-siegfried-sassoon-and-wilfredowen/
[Accessed 03/01/2014]
17. Wilson,
(2003), as note 8
18.
Westminster Abbey, Famous People & the Abbey: Poets of the First World War,
http://www.westminsterabbey.org/our-history/people/poets-of-the-first-world-war
[Accessed 03/01/2014]
19. Wilson,
(2003), as note 8
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