Suicide in Trenches
I knew a simple soldier boyWho grinned at life in empty joy,Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glumWith crumps and lice and lack of rum,He put a bullet through his brain.No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eyeWho cheer when soldier lads march by,Sneak home and pray you'll never knowThe hell where youth and laughter go.
Words in this poem
- lonesome a.
- Secluded from society; not frequented by human beings; solitary.
- glum n.
- Sullenness. Skelton. [See Gloom.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Suicide in Trenches is in the public domain. This text is taken from The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon, Project Gutenberg ebook #45199; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Siegfried Sassoon, Suicide in Trenches, in The War Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45199, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-war-poems/suicide-in-trenches.html, id L17238.
Form and metre
Suicide in Trenches is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABB boyA · joyA · darkB · larkB
- 2 AABB glumA · rumA · brainB · againB
- 3 AABB eyeA · byA · knowB · goB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I knew a simple soldier boy | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Who grinned at life in empty joy, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And whistled early with the lark. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| In winter trenches, cowed and glum | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| With crumps and lice and lack of rum, | 8 | ········ |
| He put a bullet through his brain. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No one spoke of him again. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Who cheer when soldier lads march by, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Sneak home and pray you'll never know | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The hell where youth and laughter go. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.