Wirers

“Wirers” is a short poem by English poet Siegfried Sassoon. It was written in 1917 and published in Sassoon’s collection, Counter-Attack and Other Poems in 1918. Sassoon was a British army officer who fought on the Western Front during World War I. He is most famous for his antiwar poems, and “Wirers” is typical of his work. The poem is about a group of British soldiers who venture at night into the area known as no-man’s-land in order to repair the barbed-wire entanglements protecting the British line from German attack. The antiwar theme is sharply conveyed in the ironic final line.

Poet Biography

Siegfried Sassoon was born into a wealthy family on September 8, 1886, in the village of Matfield, Kent, England. He was the second of three sons born to Alfred and Theresa Sassoon. His parents separated and his father died of tuberculosis when Sassoon was eight years old. As a young boy, Sassoon was educated by private tutors, after which he attended New Beacon School and Marlborough College, where he began to write poetry. From 1906-08 he was an undergraduate at Clare College, Cambridge, although he did little work and left after two years without a degree. He self-published his first collection of poems, Poems, in 1906, and then dedicated much of his time to writing poetry. Several more collections of conventional poems followed between 1908-13, while Sassoon filled his leisure time with activities such as cricket, hunting, and golf.

When World War I broke out in 1914, Sassoon enlisted in the Sussex Yeomanry. The following year, he was commissioned in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and in November went to France. In 1916, he participated in the Battle of the Somme. On one occasion, without being ordered to do so, he ventured into no-man’s-land to bring back wounded soldiers. For this act of bravery, he was awarded the Military Cross and acquired the nickname “Mad Jack.” In July of that year, Sassoon single-handedly captured a German trench by using grenades. Later that month, he became ill and was evacuated to England, where he recuperated at Somerville College, Oxford. Back in action the following year, in April 1917 he was shot in the shoulder at the Battle of Arras and was once more evacuated to England.

Disillusioned with the long-running war, in June Sassoon decided on a protest. He wrote “A Soldier’s Declaration,” in which he said that the war was being unnecessarily prolonged by the British civilian authorities. He argued that the purpose of the war should be clearly stated, and had that been done the objectives could by now have been achieved by negotiation. He declared that what had begun as a war of defense and liberation had become a war of aggression.

Sassoon sent the declaration to his commanding officer with a cover letter in which he refused any further military duties. He sent copies to prominent politicians and writers. Sassoon was saved from a court-martial following an intervention on his behalf by his friend, fellow officer and poet Robert Graves. Graves told a medical board that Sassoon was suffering from shellshock and while in London had suffered from hallucinations. Sassoon was then sent to Craiglockhart--a convalescent hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland. While there, he met fellow poet and soldier Wilfred Owen and they became friends. He also wrote many of his most famous antiwar poems, including “Wirers.” These poems were published in Counter-Attack and Other Poems in 1918.

It became apparent there was nothing much wrong with Sassoon, and in January 1918 he returned to combat duties. In July, he was shot in the head by one of his own men who mistook him for a German. Sassoon returned once more to England to recover. He had now attained the rank of captain, and his reputation as a war poet was firmly established.

After the war ended in November 1918, Sassoon continued to publish poetry, including Picture-Show in 1919, Recreations (1923), and Satirical Poems (1928), as well as Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man (1928) and Memoirs of an Infantry Officer (1930). In 1933, he married Hester Gatty; they had a son, George, in 1936. The couple separated in 1943, although they did not divorce. Sassoon’s Collected Poems appeared in 1947, and in 1951 he was made a Commander, Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 1957, he converted to Roman Catholicism and was awarded the Gold Medal in poetry by Queen Elizabeth II. His Collected Poems, 1908-1956, appeared in 1961.

Sassoon died of stomach cancer on September 1, 1967, at Heytesbury near Warminster, Wiltshire. He was 80 years old.

Poem Text

"Pass it along, the wiring party's going out"—

And yawning sentries mumble, "Wirers going out."

Unravelling; twisting; hammering stakes with muffled thud,

They toil with stealthy haste and anger in their blood.

The Boche sends up a flare. Black forms stand rigid there,

Stock-still like posts; then darkness, and the clumsy ghosts

Stride hither and thither, whispering, tripped by clutching snare

Of snags and tangles.

              Ghastly dawn with vaporous coasts

Gleams desolate along the sky, night's misery ended.

Young Hughes was badly hit; I heard him carried away,

Moaning at every lurch; no doubt he'll die to-day.

But we can say the front-line wire's been safely mended.

Sassoon, Siegfried. “Wirers.” Poets.org.

Summary

“Wirers” is set on the battlefield in France during World War I. It is night in the trenches and the area known as “no-man’s-land.” The British army is sending out a group of soldiers to repair the barbed wire entanglements that are part of the defenses erected against the German enemy. The wirers work with speed. The Germans, from their front lines, send up a flare, and the wirers stand motionless so they will not be detected in the sudden burst of light. After a few moments, they continue their work. Dawn comes and the wirers’ job is done. A soldier named Hughes was badly injured and will likely die. Although the mission to repair the wires was successful, the poem ends on a note of irony that calls into question whether the night’s work was worth the price paid.