Tuckahoe NY Pride

Siegfried Sassoon was a decorated British poet whose frank, bitter verse exposed the brutality of World War I. Gay and often privately conflicted in a hostile era, he moved between country-gentleman privilege and the trenches’ trauma. His early romantic lyrics gave way to sharp satire in poems like “The General” and “Suicide in the Trenches,” condemning complacent leaders and public myth making. He also wrote quietly about love, identity, and survival. After issuing a famous antiwar “Soldier’s Declaration” in 1917, he was sent to Craiglockhart hospital where he met fellow poet, Wilfred Owen. Despite sentiments expressed in numerous letters between the men, there is no support for any claim of a physical relationship between them. However, following the war Sassoon is believed to have had a succession of love affairs with men. His memoirs later shaped modern war literature.

From “The Last Meeting”
I know that he is lost among the stars,
And may return no more but in their light.
Though his hushed voice may call me in the stir
Of whispering trees, I shall not understand.
Men may not speak with stillness; and the joy
Of brooks that leap and tumble down green hills
Is faster than their feet; and all their thoughts
Can win no meaning from the talk of birds.

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