Within "Suicide in the Trenches" Siegfried Sassoon evokes the image of a young man, a child, in utter despair. This child, unable to find solace in the trenches, is marked with contrasting tones in the first stanza. The development of the soldier's living conditions in the following stanza is the first direct display of Sassoon's attitude toward war. This attitude is reinforced within the third quatrain as the crowd's hypocrisy is made apparent. For Sassoon war is evil; and, by his use of contrasting tones, pathos, and a judging eye, he is easily able to emote his hatred for it.

"I knew a simple boy..." In effect, this first line is actually the second. The title prepares us for a story of grown men fighting men's wars. However, Sassoon begins with the image of a boy- a boy unprepared for the reality of war. It is important because...