The Full Text of “Suicide in the Trenches”
1I knew a simple soldier boy
2Who grinned at life in empty joy,
3Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
4And whistled early with the lark.
5In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
6With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
7He put a bullet through his brain.
8No one spoke of him again.
9You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
10Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
11Sneak home and pray you'll never know
12The hell where youth and laughter go.
The Full Text of “Suicide in the Trenches”
1I knew a simple soldier boy
2Who grinned at life in empty joy,
3Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
4And whistled early with the lark.
5In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
6With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
7He put a bullet through his brain.
8No one spoke of him again.
9You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
10Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
11Sneak home and pray you'll never know
12The hell where youth and laughter go.
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“Suicide in the Trenches” Introduction
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"Suicide in the Trenches" is a poem by the British poet Siegfried Sassoon, published in his collection Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918). As with the other poems in that collection, "Suicide in the Trenches" draws on Sassoon's own experiences as a soldier in the British Army during World War I. The poem provides an account of the war that sharply contrasts with some of the more romanticized perspectives offered by poets like Jessie Pope and Rupert Brooke. This poem's speaker begins by describing a typical soldier—young, innocent, and somewhat naive. Tragically, the horrific reality of war drives him to commit suicide in the trenches. The poem then criticizes the public back at home, which it claims encourages young men to give up their lives without fully acknowledging the terrors that await "simple soldier boy[s]."
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“Suicide in the Trenches” Summary
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I knew an innocent young man who became a soldier. This young man had a happy, carefree life. He used to sleep peacefully all through the dark, empty night, and he would rise cheerfully in the morning, whistling along with the birds.
At war, he became depressed and scared. Driven to despair by the relentless explosions of the shells, insect bites, and lack of alcohol, he shot himself in the head. After that, he was quickly forgotten.
All you self-satisfied people back at home have fire in your eyes as you applaud young soldiers marching through the streets. After the soldiers pass, go scurry back home and hope to God you'll never have to experience the hell that is war, which destroys all joy and innocence.
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“Suicide in the Trenches” Themes
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The Tragedy and Horror of War
Siegfried Sassoon’s “Suicide in the Trenches” takes a bold and unflinching look at the horror of war, specifically the First World War (1914-1918). The poem focuses on one “simple soldier” who, in his ordinariness, stands in for millions of other young men. Torn from what would have been a typical life of “youth and laughter,” Sassoon’s “boy” is quickly overwhelmed by the grim realities of warfare and, in utter despair, shoots himself through the head.
The poem contrasts this direct experience of war—and the tragedy of the young man’s suicide—with the “smug-faced crowds” who line the streets to “cheer […] soldier lads” (and, in turn, implicitly encourage the cycle of violence and waste of life). In this poem, “hell” is not a far-off concept—but a reality on earth during war.
Sassoon begins by sketching a picture of the soldier’s innocent youthfulness prior to his experience of war. The second stanza then places the reader in the trenches themselves, the site of the suicide—while the third stanza functions as a warning to those back at home who know nothing of what it’s like to fight in such a horrific conflict.
The poem portrays its main character as a typical young man. He was “simple,” and “grinned at life in empty joy.” He would sleep well through the night and whistle with the birds in the morning. In other words, this young man was just fine before war came along. Indeed, the First World War exploited that youthful enthusiasm for life by making out that the war was some kind of exciting adventure (a lie that Sassoon worked hard to expose through his poetry).
Soon enough, the reality of war takes over, and all it takes is a few details for the poem to convey the mind-warping cruelty and hardship of the conflict. The young man becomes depressed by what he’s seen, his once peaceful sleeping now ruined by “crumps” (the sounds of explosions) and lice (maddening little insects that feed on human blood). The poem thus tries to give the reader a small glimpse into the mental strain of warfare (which contrasts with the unthinking patriotism of those back at home in the third stanza).
The young man then abruptly shoots himself in the trenches, driven to suicide by his horrific experiences. Death then, is presented as preferably to the living hell that is war. What’s more, this suicide takes place with a remarkable lack of ceremony—the young man matter-of-factly “put[s] a bullet through his brain,” utterly alone and hopeless.
Furthermore, there is no time or space to grieve for him, because the war goes on. The young man’s suicide thus echoes with all the untold tragedies of war, the poem subtly asking the reader to imagine how many young lives ended similarly, their stories long forgotten. The soldier dies, and is never spoken of again.
Finally, the poem shifts its focus back onto those at home (in this case, the U.K.). Here, crowds applaud young men going off to war, unintentionally and unthinkingly encouraging this waste of life to continue. There is also a kind of hypocrisy at play in the way that the patriotic public are willing for these young men to die, but they themselves don't have direct experience of what these young men are signing up for.
There is nothing to celebrate about war, argues the poem—and the speaker hopes that those naively cheering back at home never have to learn what it’s like to be there first-hand. War is a kind of hell where “youth and laughter” go to die, where innocence itself is slaughtered without mercy.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Suicide in the Trenches”
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Lines 1-2
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,The reader knows before the poem even begins that something terrible is going to happen, thanks to the title. The poem then opens by immediately centering on the "simple soldier boy" and uses the past tense "knew," casting a dark cloud on all the follows.
At first, though, the tone is light and the rhythm jaunty. This reflects the fact that "simple soldier boy" probably signed up for the war with a degree of excitement and anticipation, unaware of the true horrors that were to come. The clear alliteration of the phrase ("simple soldier") emphasizes his innocence and simplicity, adding a sense of lighthearted musicality. The choice of the word "boy" rather than "man" also reminds the reader that this soldier is young.
Indeed, he's probably not seen much yet in his life—which is why he used to "grin at life in empty joy." This implies that his life before the war was a kind of blissful ignorance, more like what life should be for young people.
The enjambment between these two lines flows naturally and easily, reinforcing this picture of pre-war life. But it's interesting that the speaker describes this pre-war happens as specifically "empty joy." Perhaps it was empty because it was missing something fundamental about human life itself—the sheer horrors which humanity is capable of inflicting upon its own kind.
The sound of these two lines reinforce the poem's lighthearted tone, which is at odds with the feeling of dread created by the title. These lines are written in iambic tetrameter, meaning there are four poetic feet with a da-DUM rhythm per line:
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,The clear end rhymes here between "boy" and "joy" add to the sense of ease, making the poem sound so far like a simple nursery rhyme.
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Lines 3-4
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark. -
Lines 5-8
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again. -
Lines 9-12
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
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“Suicide in the Trenches” Symbols
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The Lark
A lark is a small brown bird with a beautiful song. As part of the poem's description of the young man's pre-war life, he is depicted as an early riser, someone who "whistled early with the lark." In other words, he was carefree and happy and, indeed, his youthful companionship with the lark bird suggests that he enjoyed a kind of freedom (like a bird in flight).
The lark is often associated with the British countryside, which might as well be another planet compared to the trenches of the Western Front (long ditches dug in Western Europe that were the site of much of WW1 combat). The mention of whistling also suggests the more menacing whistling sound of bombs flying overhead. The lark, then, represents the soldier's pre-war innocence, a time when he could sleep the whole night and wake up full of energy.
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“Suicide in the Trenches” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
"Suicide in the Trenches" uses alliteration throughout its three stanzas, lending the poem a musical, sing-song quality that contrasts with the darkness of its subject.
The first example of alliteration is in line 1: "simple soldier boy." The two /s/ sounds give the phrase a simple, memorable quality. It's an almost child-like use of alliteration that helps build a picture of the soldier—who is the suicide victim mentioned in the title—as an innocent youth (hardly ready for the kind of horrors that WWI has to offer).
This alliteration is then echoed in line 3's "slept soundly," describing how the soldier used to sleep easily through the night. Together, these /s/ sounds (which are specifically sibilance) also gently evoke the sound of snoring. The whole point, of course, is to contrast the young man's calm, innocent life prior to the war with the horrors of serving in the conflict (including the insomnia).
Alliteration is then used in the second stanza (lines 5-7 specifically):
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.There's something intentionally unpleasant about the sounds in the first two lines here—the /k/ and /l/ alliteration are almost like little insects sticking to the poem's text. They also set up the dramatic alliteration in line 7. Here, "bullet" and "brain" have a harsh and violent sound evoking the suddenness of the soldier's suicidal shot. The harshness of the plosive /b/ sounds contributes to the way that this event appears in the poem completely unromantic or dressed-up—the act of suicide could hardly be put more starkly. This shocks the reader, especially given the innocent descriptions of the first stanza that set this moment up.
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Consonance
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End-Stopped Line
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Enjambment
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Metaphor
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Polysyndeton
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Juxtaposition
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"Suicide in the Trenches" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Soundly
- Lark
- Trenches
- Cowed
- Glum
- Crumps
- Lice
- Smug-faced
- Kindling
- Lads
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Without being interrupted; comfortably.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Suicide in the Trenches”
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Form
"Suicide in the Trenches" has a very simple form that supports its powerful moral message. The poem consists of three quatrains, each written in iambic tetrameter and using the same simple AABB rhyme scheme. The simplicity of the form makes the soldier's suicide the stark and uncompromising center of the poem. The suicide is a tragic event—though just one among countless others—and the poem asks the reader to confront it without any elaborate formal decoration. Indeed, it is literally at the center of the poem, falling in the middle of the second stanza.
Each stanza serves a distinct purpose in the way that the poem unfolds. The first stanza paints a picture of idyllic pre-war life. The second stanza, as discussed above, talks about life in the trenches and the suicide itself. The third stanza functions as a warning to those members of the public back home who uncritically support the war. The structure here seems to isolate the act of suicide, giving the reader a greater sense of the young soldier's despair.
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Meter
As with Sassoon's other famous war poems, "Suicide in the Trenches" has a regular meter. In this case, it's iambic tetrameter—meaning there are four metrical feet in each line, each with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM). The poem's meter is very consistent, featuring little variation. Here are the first two lines as an example:
I knew | a simp- | le sol- | dier boy
Who grinned | at life | in emp- | ty joy,This metrical regularity has two important effects. First, it evokes the sound of marching, which ties in with the war setting. There's something relentless about the march of syllables as the poem unfolds, perhaps hinting at the soldier's mental exhaustion and exasperation. The meter also gives the poem a simplicity that seems appropriate for the subject. There is no messiness or poetic complication to distract from the clear, horrifying story being told.
That said, there is one obvious metrical variation in line 8:
No | one spoke | of him | again.
Here the line cuts away the first unstressed syllable (a technique known as catalexis). Briefly changing the meter here makes the line more stark, intensifying the heartbreaking way in which the man—who is more of a boy, really—is so quickly forgotten.
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Rhyme Scheme
"Suicide in the Trenches" has a consistent rhyme scheme throughout its 12 lines. The poem is written in pairs of rhyming couplets, each stanza following an AABB scheme that thus plays out over the course of the poem as:
AABB CCDD EEFF
The main effect of this rhyme scheme is a sense of ease and simplicity. First, the simple tone suits the character being described—"a simple soldier boy." The child-like rhymes in the first stanza—boy/joy (which emphasizes youthful happiness) and dark/lark—could almost appear in a nursery rhyme. The simple rhyme scheme also makes the suicide itself dramatic and powerful without the need for much discussion or detail. It speaks for itself, placed at the center of the poem's simple set of rhymes.
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“Suicide in the Trenches” Speaker
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The poem uses a first-person perspective, but the reader learns very little about this "I." Indeed, the first-person pronoun only appears once.
What's clear is that this person has a close familiarity with the reality of war. To that end, most readers interpret this "I" as the direct voice of Siegfried Sassoon himself. His poems were powerful and popular in large part because people trusted that they were based on genuine and authentic wartime experience—unlike the jingoistic poetry of writers like Jessie Pope and Rupert Brooke (who, it must be said, were very popular at one time too!).
The speaker of this poem sounds like a person who has been crushed by the experience of war, but, unlike the suicidal "soldier boy," this individual survived to tell the tale (the poem is in the past tense). Having seen the reality of war—as opposed to the fictional image of war sold to people back home—the speaker sees certain attitudes in the public as dangerous and wrong. The naive encouragement of young "soldier lads," argues the speaker, in part contributes to the war itself. That is, unthinking patriotism is part of the fuel that fires "the hell where youth and laughter go."
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“Suicide in the Trenches” Setting
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"Suicide in the Trenches" takes place during World War I. The poem is written in the past-tense, which in this instance provides a sense that the poem is based on lived experience rather than an imagined view of war. Indeed, part of the mission of Sassoon's poetry was to give the public back home a more accurate picture—tragic events and all—of the First World War.
The poem's three stanzas divide neatly into three more specific settings. The first stanza focuses on the "simple soldier boy"—the "suicide" of the title. It takes the reader to the soldier's pre-war life back home, which is so far removed from life in the trenches it might as well be on Mars. Of course, it was most likely in England, which is also suggested by the presence of the "lark" bird. This stanza creates a false sense of peace and calm, which has, of course, already been undermined by the title.
The second stanza places the reader right inside the First World War conflict. It focuses on the misery of the winter trenches (most likely on the Western Front, the collective name for the warfare taking place in Western Europe) and portrays the "soldier boy" as a desperate, isolated figure. Here, the suicide itself takes place—with no sense of ceremony and without any further discussion.
The third stanza returns to the U.K., where "smug-faced crowds" line the streets and cheer new soldiers on their way to war. It's a stark contrast with the tragedy of the second stanza, and shows the divide between two distinct settings—the home country and the war front.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Suicide in the Trenches”
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Literary Context
Siegfried Sassoon was and remains one of the best-known poets of the First World War. His poetry has endured in large part because of its authenticity, with Sassoon drawing on his own remarkable experiences during the war (including, for example, getting shot in the head). This poem was first published in a magazine, before appearing in Sassoon's 1918 collection Counter-Attack and Other Poems.
"Suicide in the Trenches" ranks among Sassoon's most widely-known poems, along with others like "Attack" and "Dreamers." Sassoon uses unflinching details and spares no punches in his work. In this poem, he bluntly approaches the subject of suicide, which was very taboo at the time. There was little sympathy or help available for distressed soldiers, which is why this "soldier boy" is forgotten almost as quick as he takes his own life.
In terms of like-minded poets, Sassoon has most in common with his friend Wilfred Owen. Both poets wanted to show the public the reality of war—the tragedy and horror of war—as an antidote to the poisonous and false romantic visions of war constructed by poets like Jessie Pope and Rupert Brooke. In fact, both of these latter poets make for worthy comparison—it's easy to tell which poems are based on first-hand experience of this terrible conflict.
Sassoon's poems is certainly not the only one that features a lark, an important bird in the British literary imagination (inasmuch as that can be said to exist). The poem appears in works by Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare, and in "The Lark Ascending," a poem which Sassoon himself called "perfection" (and on which Ralph Vaughan Williams's musical composition of the same name was based).
Historical Context
The First World War, which ran from 1914 to 1918, was a conflict unlike any other in human history up until that point. Initially sparked by the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, the conflict pulled in most of the world like falling dominoes. France, Russia, and England were pitted in alliance against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, although many other countries became involved too, with the American engagement helping to bring about the war's end.
It was a conflict like no other because it was, in a way, a terrible and perfect storm in which the deadly ambitions of generals on either side were paired with significant advances in military technology. This lethal combination meant the number of casualties were unparalleled, and the Western Front—the main area of fighting in Western Europe—has sometimes been likened to a meat-grinder in the way that young life was destroyed effortlessly and relentlessly. As Sassoon's poem makes clear, the First World War took a deadly toll on the youth of Europe, and many of the soldiers were barely adults at all.
Whereas earlier battles in human history were, though bloody, frequently short conflicts, the First World War dragged on and on, with both sides literally bedding into trenches dug along the Western Front. Here, soldiers endured terribly damp conditions, kept awake by the sound of exploding shells, bitten by "lice," and surrounded by their deceased and dismembered comrades. Sassoon served extensively in the conflict, earning a reputation for bravery and becoming a voice of dissent against the war itself (or the way it was being fought and presented).
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More “Suicide in the Trenches” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of the poem by Stephen Graham.
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Bringing WWI to Life — In this clip, director Peter Jackson discusses his recent WWI film, They Shall Not Grow Old. Though technology, Jackson brings old war footage to vivid life.
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More Poems From WWI — A valuable resource from the Poetry Foundation focusing on First World War poetry.
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Sassoon's Life and Work — A BBC Radio documentary about Siegfried Sassoon and his poetry.
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The Lark Ascending — A performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams's brilliant composition, inspired by George Meredith's poem of the same name (of which Sassoon was a great admirer).
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Sassoon's Correspondence — A letter from Sassoon to his uncle, shortly after Sassoon was wounded in battle.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Siegfried Sassoon
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