This project and its actions were made possible due to co-financing by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals Base Details Poem analysis cards Subject:English Age groups:12–14; 15–16 Topic:World War I: Poetry EAL Nexus resource Licence information | This resource is free to use for educational purposes. © British Council 2015 Source | This resource was originally developed by Nerissa Lea and has been adapted by EAL Nexus.

If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,

The poet is a soldier and thinks the majors are unfit.

The poet is one of the soldiers and describes the majors as unfit due to their lifestyle.

I’d live with scarlet majors at the Base.

The majors do not live with the soldiers on the frontline.

The majors live in better conditions and do not fight alongside their men.

And speed glum heroes up the line to death.

The heroes go to the frontline, knowing that they are likely to die there.

When soldiers die, others are sent to replace them.

You’d see me with my puffy petulant face,

The majors are angry because they are losing.

The majors are unfit. When they are angry, their fat faces puff like spoilt children.

Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel.

The majors eat and drink like animals, at the nice places where they live.

The living conditions of soldiers and the majors are very different.

Reading the Roll of Honour. ‘Poor young chap,’ I’d say- ’I used to know his father well; Yes we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap’

The majors have nothing to say about the men who have lost their lives.

The majors show no genuine concerns. They only think about sending more soldiers to replace the lost ones.

And when the war is done and youth stone dead; I’d toddle safely home and die - in bed.

The soldiers died young in the war, but the majors will grow old and die at home in comfort.

Sassoon shows his anger in this poem, about how lives can be so different for men serving the same country.