Sassoon Journals : 'Poems: by Siegfried Sassoon 1916' and 'Poems: 1917-18'

Sassoon Journals

Notebook comprising fair copies, with some revisions, of 'Poems: by Siegfried Sassoon 1916' and 'Poems: 1917-18' (including some earlier poems dated 1908-1915). It appears to be Sassoon's own collection of his war poetry. The first poems in each section are numbered and some pages have been torn out by Sassoon, leaving an incomplete sequence; later poems are unnumbered. Many are dated, with details of their publication sometimes given. Contents:'Poems: by Siegfried Sassoon 1916': <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(6);return false;'>1v-69r</a>. Includes:<ul><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(6);return false;'>1v</a>. Two quotations from 'Macbeth' by William Shakespeare and from Thomas Traherne</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(7);return false;'>2r</a>. Title page, with Sassoon's monogram</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(8);return false;'>2v</a>. A note giving the publication dates of 'The Old Huntsman and Other Poems' and 'Counter-Attack and Other Poems'</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(9);return false;'>3r</a>. 'Golgotha', Mar. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(11);return false;'>4r</a>. 'A Subaltern', Mar. 1916, with annotation 'C.M. March 1917'</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(13);return false;'>5r</a>. 'Brothers', Dec. 1915, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(15);return false;'>6r</a>. 'To Victory', Jan. 1916, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(17);return false;'>7r</a>. 'Absolution', Apr. and Sept. 1915</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(19);return false;'>8r</a>. 'The Dragon and the Undying', Feb. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(21);return false;'>9r</a>. 'France', May 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(23);return false;'>10r</a>. 'In the Pink', 10 Feb. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(25);return false;'>11r</a>.'To his Dead Body', Aug. 1916, with revision</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(27);return false;'>12r</a>. 'Stand-to Good Friday Morning', Apr. 1916, with revisions and annotation (includes two additional lines to the published version)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(29);return false;'>13r-14r</a>. 'The Redeemer', Mar. 1916, from a draft made in Nov. 1915</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(33);return false;'>15r</a>. 'The Road', Aug. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(35);return false;'>16r-17r</a>. 'The Death-Bed', Aug. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(39);return false;'>18r</a>. 'Stretcher-Case', Aug. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(41);return false;'>19r</a>. 'The Hero', Aug. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(43);return false;'>20r</a>. 'The One-Legged Man', Aug. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(45);return false;'>21r</a>. 'Conscripts', with revision</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(49);return false;'>23r</a>. 'The Tombstone-Maker', Oct. 1916, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(50);return false;'>23v</a>. 'Blighters', 4 Feb. 1917, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(51);return false;'>24r</a>. 'They', 31 Oct. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(52);return false;'>24v</a>. 'The March Past', Dec. 1916 (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(53);return false;'>25r</a>. 'Died of Wounds', July 1916, with revision</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(54);return false;'>25v</a>. 'Secret Music', Dec. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(55);return false;'>26r</a>. July 3rd 1916', July 1916, with revisions 'At Carnoy</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(56);return false;'>26v</a>. 'Decorated', Nov. 1916 (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(57);return false;'>27r</a>. 'A Mystic as Soldier', Nov. 1916, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(58);return false;'>27v</a>. 'Enemies', Jan. 1917, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(59);return false;'>28r</a>. 'Two Hundred Years after', Oct. 1916, with revision and annotation 'C.M. Feb. 1917'</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(60);return false;'>28v-29r</a>. 'A Working Party', 30 Mar. 1916, with revisions and annotation 'written during my first tour of trenches'</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(63);return false;'>30r</a>. 'Arms and the Man', Nov. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(65);return false;'>31r</a>. 'The Choral Union', Dec. 1916, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(66);return false;'>31v</a>. 'A Whispered Tale (To J.D.)' [Julian Dadd]', Dec. 1916, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(67);return false;'>32r</a>. 'The Distant Song', Dec. 1916, with revision and annotation 'versified from trench diary. A phrase or two used for end of F.H.M.' ['Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man']</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(69);return false;'>33r</a>. 'Morning Glory', Aug. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(70);return false;'>33v</a>. 'To-Day', Feb. 1915, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(71);return false;'>34r</a>. 'A Poplar and the Moon', May 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(72);return false;'>34v</a>. 'Before the Battle', Bussy-le-Daours, 25 June 1916, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(73);return false;'>35r</a>. 'Wind in the Beechwood', May 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(75);return false;'>36r-38r</a>. 'A Letter Home [to Robert Graves]', May 1916, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(80);return false;'>38v</a>. 'Tree and Sky', Feb. 1915, with revision</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(81);return false;'>39r</a>. 'A Child's Prayer', Feb. 1915</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(82);return false;'>39v</a>. 'Companions', Mar. 1915</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(83);return false;'>40r</a>. 'Dream-Forest', July 1914</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(84);return false;'>40v</a>. 'South Wind', June 1914</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(85);return false;'>41r</a>. 'Blind', Mar. 1915</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(87);return false;'>42r</a>. 'Ancestors', Mar. 1915</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(89);return false;'>43r</a>. 'Morning Express', Mar. 1915</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(91);return false;'>44r</a>. 'Liquor-Control [to Roderick Meiklejohn Esq. C.B.]', Sept. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(92);return false;'>44v</a>. 'Policeman', Apr. 1915</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(93);return false;'>45r</a>. 'David Cleek', Nov. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(95);return false;'>46r-47r</a>. 'Haunted', July 1914, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(99);return false;'>48r-53r</a>. 'The Last Meeting', May 1916, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(110);return false;'>53v</a>. 'Wisdom', Mar. 1915</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(111);return false;'>54r</a>. 'Alone', Apr. 1915</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(113);return false;'>55r</a>. 'Noah', Mar. 1915</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(114);return false;'>55v</a>. 'A Wanderer', 1912, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(115);return false;'>56r</a>. 'Nimrod in September', Sept. 1913</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(117);return false;'>57r-63r</a>. 'The Old Huntsman', Mar. 1915, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(130);return false;'>63v</a>. 'The Shepherd', 1910 (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(131);return false;'>64r</a>. 'Morning-Land', 1911</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(131);return false;'>64r</a>. 'Arcady Unheeding', 1911</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(132);return false;'>64v</a>. 'Daybreak in a Garden', Feb. 1915, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(133);return false;'>65r</a>. 'Dryads', 1909, with revision</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(134);return false;'>65v</a>. 'Villon', 1909, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(135);return false;'>66r</a>. 'An Old French Poet', 1909</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(135);return false;'>66r</a>. 'Before Day', 1909</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(137);return false;'>67r</a>. 'Night-Piece', 1911, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(138);return false;'>67v</a>. 'Gibbet', 1910-1911 (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(139);return false;'>68r</a>. 'Goblin-Revel', 1910, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(140);return false;'>68v</a>. 'October', 1908</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(141);return false;'>69r</a>. 'The Heritage', 1912, with revision</li></ul> 'Poems: 1917-18': <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(142);return false;'>69v-93r</a>. Includes:<ul><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(142);return false;'>69v</a>. Quotation from Thomas Hardy, 'The Dynasts', III.5.v</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(143);return false;'>70r</a>. Title page, with quotation from Walt Whitman ['Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking'] and Sassoon's monogram</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(144);return false;'>70v</a>. Note giving details of where various poems were published</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(145);return false;'>71r</a>. 'Invocation', Jan. 1918, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(146);return false;'>71v</a>. 'Wraiths', Sept. 1918, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(147);return false;'>72r</a>. 'Butterflies', Aug. 1918, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(149);return false;'>73r</a>. 'Memory', Feb. 1918, with annotation</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(151);return false;'>74r</a>. 'Idyll', Jan. 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(152);return false;'>74v</a>. 'Miracles', 9 Jan. 1919</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(159);return false;'>76r</a>. 'The Dug-Out', Aug. 1918, with four additional lines which are excised and marked 'cut this out'</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(160);return false;'>76v</a>. 'Vision', Aug. 1918, with revisions</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(161);return false;'>90r</a>. 'Battalion-Relief', July 1918, with revisions and heavily underlined</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(162);return false;'>90v</a>. 'Memorial Tablet (Great War)', Nov. 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(163);return false;'>91r</a>. 'Reconciliation', Nov. 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(163);return false;'>91r</a>. 'Devotion to Duty', Feb. 1919</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(164);return false;'>91v</a>. 'Sporting Acquaintances', June 1914</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(165);return false;'>92r</a>. 'In the Church of St. Ouen', 4 Mar. 1917, with revision</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(166);return false;'>93r-92v</a>. 'Christ and the Soldier', 5 Aug. 1916, with revisions and enclosed note by Sassoon (see enclosure <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(192);return false;'>MS Add.9852.6.2.2</a>)</li></ul> Entries continue from the back of the notebook, running from folio <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(183);return false;'>99-94</a><ul><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(175);return false;'>95v-97v</a>. 'Notes on Poems 1916' (32 notes)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(180);return false;'>95r</a> 'A Testament', Montagne, 1 Jan. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(181);return false;'>94v</a> 'The Crown', July 1916 (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(181);return false;'>94v</a> 'Blighty', Dec. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(182);return false;'>94r</a> 'A Ballad', Oct. 1916</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(183);return false;'>99r</a>. Sassoon's initials</li></ul> N.B. Sassoon used this notebook from both ends. Enclosures are to be found in separate envelopes. The foliation is the archivist's.