Influence of Siegfried Sassoon

           Siegfried Sassoon was a critically acclaimed English poet. His poems were centered about the realistic brutality of trench warfare. Often, his poems criticized those in power and their prolonging of the war. In 1917, Sassoon and Owen met in Craiglockhart War Hospital. Owen was hospitalized as a result from suffering from shell-shock. As the friendship between Owen and Sassoon grew, so did Sassoon’s influence on Owen’s developing writing style. This is exemplified in the two poems, “Dulce et Decorum Est” and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. There is a presence of realism and revealing the true experience of war. Sassoon further enhanced Owen’s writing ability by both editing and promoting his work. At the time of Owen’s death, Sassoon ensured the publishing and promotion of his poems. The influence of Siegfried Sassoon allowed for the flourishing of Owen’s poems postmortem.