Attack – Siegfried Sassoon

At dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun

As the sun rises, the mountain range shows up like a greyish mass

In the wild purple of the glow’ring sun

Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud

The menacing scarred slope; and, one by one,

Tanks creep and topple forward to the wire.

The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowed

With bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear,

Men jostle and climb to, meet the bristling fire.

Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,

They leave their trenches, going over the top,

While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists,

And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists,

Flounder in mud. O Jesus, make it stop!

Cast against the fiery purple of a bright sun

Burning slowly through sudden patches of floating smoke that cover

The threatening-looking slope with marks, and one after the other,

Heavy armoured vehicles with weapons advance slowly towards the wire fence.

The artillery fires its guns loudly. Then, with awkward movement, lowers itself

With its bombs, guns, shovels and military equipments,

Which the soldiers edge their way towards and climb onto, ready for war.

Rows of gloomy men speak softly, looking afraid.

They climb out of their low narrow ditches of shelter,

Their watches showing the passing of time in the meanwhile,

And the soldiers wish, secretly and with clenched fists,

While they stumble in mud – that God would put an end to this war!

EXAMPLES

Line 4:

“The menacing scarred slope”

Lines 5-7:

“Tanks creep and topple forward to the wire.

The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowed

With bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear,”

ANALYSIS

The word “menacing” brings up a sense of threat and danger, which is apt given the abundance of violence, killing and deaths that happen on the battlefield. It is also worth noting the atmospheric contrast that comes with this adjective, as the poem starts by projecting an almost dreamy, idyllic feel (“at dawn… in the wild purple of the glow’ring sun”), only to be abruptly undercut by the sharp reminder of a hostile environment that is both “menacing” and “scarr[ing]”.

The use of verbs “creep”, “topple”, “roars”, “lifts” and “clumsily bowed” serves to mind large animals in the wild, such as elephants (who would lift their trunks) and lions (who are known for their signature bellowing roar). These are also animals that can be threatening to humans, given their force and fierceness. In the same vein, military armaments are being compared to dangerous animals, highlighting the perilous situation that the soldiers are in.

EXAMPLES

Lines 3-4:

“Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud
The menacing scarred slope;”

Lines 6-8:

“The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowed
With bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear,
Men jostle and climb to, meet the bristling fire.”

ANALYSIS

The repetition of sibilants (the ‘s’ consonant) mimics the slow, dragged-out movements of the smoke clouds travelling along the mountain edges. The relatively quiet sound of the ‘s’ letter also reinforces the tranquility of early morning, which will later on be drastically contrasted against the harsh cacophony of gunshots, bombings and cries.

As the poem moves into its ‘busier’ section, the kinesthetics of war starts to pile on, and with that louder noises also come to the fore. Marked by the plosives ‘b’, ‘g’ and ‘j’, these consonants emit forceful, abrupt sounds that remind one of loudness and strength. Such qualities are very much characteristic of what happens on a battlefield, considering the plethora of bombings and firings, as well as the vigorous motions of soldiers (“jostle and climb”) in the flurry of war.

Line 9:

“Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,”

Line 11:

“While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists,”

With a dehumanizing streak of the pen, the poet ‘reduces’ rows of men into nothing but “lines of grey”, as if underlining (pun intended) just how little identity and individualism mean in the face of warfare. It seems that not even the human body entire matters, given that each soldier is simply referred to in the collective of “muttering faces”, their selfhood taken over by the overwhelming fear of what is to come out of battle – death, carnage and tragedy.

Why does the poet not mention the object ‘watch’, but only points to the underlying idea with the description of “time ticks… on their wrists”? Perhaps the implication is that when one’s existence hinges at the cusp between life and death, material artefacts become so trivial that they are no longer relevant – indeed, are not even worth mentioning. The reference to time passing by quickly may also be a morose nod at the impending arrival of death, which is of course the point at which one’s time ceases forever to ‘tick’.