These two poems of Sassoon’s stuck out to me the most for their descriptive and conceptual power.
I find Christ and the Soldier particularly fascinating because it mirrors my own thoughts about religion in tandem with the war. I’m not a religious person myself, and I always thought that using Christianity and God as motivators for fighting in the war was a little strange because if the British believe God to be on their side, but the Germans believe God to be on theirs, then which is true? Ultimately, because Christ doesn’t answer the soldier’s question, I think Sassoon conveys that God has no place in this war and cannot be relied upon. I mean, why would so many soldiers have to die in such horrific ways if God was on their side? Why does an innocent mother have to grieve simply because her son was 18 and loved his country (or was pressured)? I would think when the circumstances are that senseless, faith would be quite hard to sustain.
I thought Counter-Attack had a very disturbing but vivid description to it. The last 4-5 lines in particular stuck out to me because they reminded me of the Owen poem we talked about in class, Dulce et Decorum Est. Both poems describe a soldier dying, but in different ways. One dies from gas, and the other from a shell explosion of sorts. Both poets chose to say these soldiers are drowning. I think this fits with the physical sensations of Owen’s soldier in Dulce et Decorum Est, but there must be a deeper meaning. Sassoon’s uses of ”smothering gloom” and ”blurred confusion” make me realize the trauma of dying in his soldier’s manner. Not being able to stop your own death or receive help must be an extremely suffocating feeling, worsened by the fact that he is lying in the middle of the terrible chaos. I liken it to the fact that if you’re actually drowning, it’s also a chaotic experience that is out of your control. Applying that idea generally, every soldier, including Sassoon himself, is drowning more as the war goes on.
As someone who is Christian, I think that the motivation people experienced to fight for Christianity was manipulation from the church and state of each respective country. We’ve seen examples of groups manipulating religious texts in order to achieve their end goals throughout history and in many different faiths.
As for the question of sustaining faith, we’ve encountered multiple texts this semester where characters either are disillusioned with or never mention faith. “Christ and the Soldier” is a particularly strong example because it creates a sense of abandonment by God. However, I’ve found that I hold fast to my faith when situations are senseless because it strengthens me and gives me hope. I suspect that the people who kept their faith throughout this horrible ordeal did so because it enabled them to survive.