Counter-attack and Other Poems

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (1886-1967) who wrote under the pseudonyms Pinchbeck Lyre, Sigma Sashun and George Sherston was an English poet and author. He became known as a writer of satirical anti-war verse during World War I, but later won acclaim for his prose work. Sassoon was born in the village of Matfield, Kent, to a Jewish father and a Protestant English mother. He studied both law and history from 1905 to 1907 however, he dropped out of university without a degree and spent the next few years hunting, playing cricket, and privately publishing a few volumes of not very highly acclaimed poetry. Sassoon joined the military just as the threat of World War I was realised. He soon became horrified by the realities of war, and the tone of his writing changed completely. Sassoon's periods of duty on the Western Front were marked by exceptionally brave actions. The war had brought Sassoon into contact with men from less advantaged backgrounds, and he had developed Socialist sympathies. Amongst his famous works are The Daffodil Murderer (1913), The Old Huntsman (1917), Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918), Picture-Show (1919) and The War Poems (1919).