Military Officials
Sassoon's poems often satirize those in charge of the military effort who stay safely behind the front lines and send innocent soldiers to the battlefield. These officials are usually not concerned about what is happening at the war front. Instead, they refer to the war in a casual manner and appear cheerful just because they themselves are not part of the bloodshed. An example of such a character can be found in the poem "The General," in which the general is a blue-blooded aristocrat who addresses his soldiers in an upper-class accent. Another example is the Major in "Base Details," who guzzles and gulps the best food and drink while sending soldiers to the front lines.
Soldier
Another character that frequently appears in Sassoon's poems is a soldier, sometimes referred to by the speaker in the third person and sometimes directly as the first-person speaker. Often, the soldier is a sympathetic character who undergoes the discomfort and trauma of warfare. In "The Redeemer," a soldier encounters Christ in the trenches. In "The Rear-Guard," a soldier makes his way along an underground tunnel and encounters a corpse. But in other poems, the character of the soldier does not fit the stereotypical figure of honor put forth by propaganda. In "The Hero," a colonel refrains from telling a mother that her dead son was a "cold-footed, useless swine."
Many of Sassoon's war poems revolve around the character of a soldier, and this exhibits his compassion and concern for his peers.
The Speaker
The speakers in Sassoon's poems are diverse, ranging from soldiers to observers speaking in the first or third-person perspectives. Sassoon's own disillusionment with the war effort creates a bitter and sarcastic tone in many of the poems where the speaker critiques those who blindly support the war. Examples include "Base Details," "The One-Legged Man," and "Suicide in the Trenches." In other poems, the speaker turns to nature for comfort or redemption. One such poem is "The Hawthorn Tree," in which a parent of a soldier walks every day to a hawthorn tree, longing for news about his son.
