Poem Analysis

Alone
By: Siegfried Sassoon









Analysis of The Poem:


I’ve listened:  - the beginning words set what the next couple of lines are about
and all the sounds I heard - keeps you wondering what he could be talking about, what sounds
Were music,—wind, and stream, and bird. - imagery, he is saying all the things he heard sounded like music to his ears, nature sounded beautieful
With youth who sang from hill to hill - the sound of the nature sounded prue like youth singing on a hill
I’ve listened: my heart is hungry still.  - after hearing the nature sing he is left wanting more


I’ve looked: - the beginning words set what the next couple of lines are about
the morning world was green; - imagery
Bright roofs and towers of town I’ve seen;
And stars, wheeling through wingless night.
I’ve looked: and my soul yet longs for light.


I’ve thought: - the beginning words set what the next couple of lines are about
but in my sense survives
Only the impulse of those lives
That were my making. Hear me say
‘I’ve thought!’—and darkness hides my day.

    Siegfried Sassoon was born on September 8, 1887, and died on September 1, 1967. Sassoon was a poet and a author. He was known was a writer of satirical anti-war verse during WW1, But later won acclaim for his prose work. Sassoon was born in Matfield, Kent to a Jewish father and a English mother. His father, Alfred was one of the wealthy merchant family, was disinherited for marrying outside the faith. His mother Teresa, belonged to the Thornycroft family, sculptors responsible for the many of the best- known statues in London.

    Sassoon's controversial war poetry has received mixed reactions. Many critics, including some of Sassoon's friends and fellow poets, have disapproved of Sassoon's treatment of combat, saying that his verse deals only with war's immediate and startling aspects. They have maintained that his anger invalidates his work aesthetically because his descriptions appeal to the senses rather than the imagination. Wilfred Owen concluded that Sassoon's poems do not expand and intensify the horror of war into a greater human context, but rather enjoin the reader to react to the moment.

     The poem title “Alone” seems sad, or even scary. Knowing what we know about  Sassoon's background and the time period he was brought up in tells us a little about the title. As we know war is not a happy situation, many people die and it effects all parts of our life. That’s why when you look at the title and you think of Sassoon, you make a connection that it must be about the war.


References:
http://www.enotes.com/poetry-criticism/sassoon-siegfried
http://www.helium.com/items/186298-how-war-influenced-the-poetry-of-siegfried-sassoon-and-wilfred-own