SIGFRIED SASSOON 1886-1967 He was born in 1886 and served with great courage his country

in France in the First World War. He wrote his war poetry AT THE FRONT, and he was one of the
firstpoets that express contempt for the generals and politicians and to describe the horror of
the trenches. He survived the war.
"THEY" The Bishop tells us: "when the boys come back They will not be the same; for they'll
have fought In a just cause; they lead the last attack On Anti-Christ; their comrades' blood has
bought. New right to breed an honourable race, They have challenged death and dared him
face to face" "We're none of us the same" the boys reply. "For George lost both his legs; and
Bill's stone blind Poor Jim's shot through the lungs and like to die And Bert's gone syphilitic:
you'll not find A chap who's served that hasn't found some change". And the Bishop said: "The
ways of God are strange!"
The poem is divided into two stanzas and it's meaningful because in the first speaks the
BISHOP, who stands for the establishment (attitude to hypocrisy); in the second speak the
SOLDIERS. This underlines the juxtaposition between the point of view of the bishop (they go to
fight for a just cause) and the one of the soldiers (the war is very hard and difficult trough
examples they want us to understand what they live). The title "THEY" underlines the distance
between the soldiers and the Bishop, "they" represents an indefinite number of people an
abstract contents reproduced by the Bishop's words. BISHOP: His point of view is idealistic,
because of his idealised vision of the war. He didn't fight and he didn't see what the war really
was. WAR is for the bishop a source of moral change for the soldiers, they will become better,
when they will come back from the war they'll have honour and they will be considered heroes.
As his conception of the war is abstract, his language is full of ABSTRACT WORDS (cause, right,
Anti-Christ, race). Also the use of EVALUATIVE ADJECTIVES (just, honourable) before the
abstract words convey the meaning that the speaker wants to give to his speech. There's a
large use of LATINATE WORDS and a RELIGIOUS and BIBLICAL CONNOTATION (Death, AntiChrist, God). "They lead the last attack/On Anti-Christ" is a figure of speech, a metaphorical
image which personifies an abstract concept THEY DESTROY THE GERMANS, THE EVIL "Their
comrades' blood has bought" is a MITHONIMY, blood stands for the death; the death of those
soldiers has given something to England. "Challenged Death and dared him face to face" is a
PERSONIFICATION and wants to underline the courage of the soldiers. BISHOP'S LANGUAGE:
figurative because of the use of the figures of speech; general because he doesn't know the
reality of the war and he speaks in general of every war; high-flown because of the use of
Latinate words, the figures of speech, the elevate language; idealistic because of the fight for
the religion; ornate, rhetorical because of personification. "New right to breed an honourable
race" the fact that British soldiers died gives the right to say that it is a race full of honour.
SOLDIERS: They are who fights at the war and are at the front. WAR is a physical change in
worse all what you can have from war are physical problems. SOLDIERS' LANGUAGE: factual;
descriptive; conversational; literal because of the direct way to present and explain what they
mean; specific; informal because of the use of words like cheap and stone blind; down to earth
because they don't use difficult words or figures of speech; realistic and concrete because of
the use of many concrete elements like the mutilation and physical degrade that convey to a
realistic point of view. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS: -The two stanzas are spoken by different
people but have the same structure: they consist in general statement supported by reasons
(THE SOLDIERS WILL NOT BE THE SAME). Bishop: -they will have fought in a juste cause -they
lead the last attack on Anti-Christ -their comrades blood has bought -they have challenged
death and dared him face to face Soldiers: -they are mutilated and some comrades' died during
the war. -After the answer of the soldiers and their reasons; the Bishop speaks again ("the ways
of god are strange") he wants to justify his first affirmations (first stanza) because of the
concrete and horrible side of the war given by the soldiers. -Two different point of view: Bishop:
based on opinion Soldiers: based on facts -Situation: the setting is not clearly defined; the
subject is the coming back of the soldiers from the front and the different opinion of the Bishop
and the soldiers; the task of the two parts is to present the two different points of view on the

same statement; they are speaking in a dialogue. REGISTER JUXTAPOSITION Every language
has a wide range of language varieties or REGISTERS, which have special features, or Lexis,
syntax and even pronunciation called REGISTER MARKERS. Their use is dictated by the
situation in which they are supposed to occur. Poets can draw on different varieties of English
for the language of a single poem and MIX REGISTERS used by different sorts of people. THE
PURPOSE OF THE POEM IS TO ATTACK THOSE WHO JUSTIFY WAR ON RELIGIOUS AND MORAL
GROUNDS.