Sassoon Journals : Notebook, 1917-1918

Sassoon Journals

Notebook containing poetical drafts (mostly dated 1918), autobiographical notes or prose drafts, with some diary entries. Contents include:Drafts of poetry:<ul><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(6);return false;'>1v</a>. untitled, begins 'Birds have their singing time' (poem is excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(7);return false;'>2r</a>. 'I Stood with the Dead', 18 June 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(9);return false;'>3r</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(31);return false;'>14r-15r</a>. 'Flamingoes' (sic)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(10);return false;'>3v</a>. 'Near Port Said' (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(12);return false;'>4v</a>. 'Can I forget ...', 10 Aug. [1918]</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(13);return false;'>5r</a>. untitled, begins 'Soldiers are heroes to the yelping pack' (text is faint), with abstract drawing</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(15);return false;'>6r</a>. untitled, begins 'I've listened since the war began' (excised; text partially erased)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(16);return false;'>6v-7r</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(19);return false;'>8r</a>. 'Hawthornden (to R.S.M.)' [Roderick Sinclair Meiklejohn], St. Hilaire, 6 July 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(18);return false;'>7v</a>. 'Shadows', 16 April 1918 (text is very faint)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(24);return false;'>10v-13r</a>. 'Concert-Party'</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(34);return false;'>15v</a>. 'His Epitaph (in the old-fashioned artificial manner)'</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(36);return false;'>16v-17r</a>. 'Civilisation (on the boat)', May 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(40);return false;'>18v</a>. untitled, begins 'For the last time I say, War is not glorious', 3 May 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(44);return false;'>20v-21v</a>. 'On reading de la Mare's poems after the day's work', 3 June 1918 (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(54);return false;'>25v</a>. 'Colin', 12 June 1918 (text erased and largely illegible)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(61);return false;'>29r</a>. 'Requiescant', 4 Aug. 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(62);return false;'>29v-30r</a>. 'A Soldier's Complaint', 21 June [1918] (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(65);return false;'>31r</a>. 'The Spirit of the Bayonet', 21 June [1918]</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(66);return false;'>31v-33r</a>. 'Tactical Points', 5 June [1918] (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(70);return false;'>33v-34v</a>. 'To any Father who thinks War splendid', 22 June [1918]</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(74);return false;'>35v</a>. untitled, begins 'For they are dwellers in the dark', 28 June [1918] (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(75);return false;'>36r</a>. untitled, begins 'I read your songs of birds and flowers and trees' (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(92);return false;'>44v-45r</a>. 'Pursuit', 19 July [1918] (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(98);return false;'>47v-48r</a>. untitled, begins 'I love all things that pass'</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(100);return false;'>48v-49v</a>. two drafts of 'The King of Glory', later called 'Jesus in Heaven', 3 Aug. [1918]</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(103);return false;'>50r</a>. 'The Crucifix', 7 Aug. 1918 (excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(104);return false;'>50v-51r</a>. draft lines of poetry, some of which were later used in 'The Dug-Out', Lancaster Gate, 9 Aug. 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(106);return false;'>51v-53r</a>. untitled (early draft of 'Great Men')</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(111);return false;'>54r</a>. 'B.G.C', June 1918</li></ul> Prose and diary entries:<ul><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(8);return false;'>2v</a>. 'Incidents', Kantara, Egypt, April [1918]</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(11);return false;'>4r</a>. 'On the March', Ludd, Palestine, April 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(14);return false;'>5v</a>. diary entry dated 15 April [1918]</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(20);return false;'>8v-13r</a>. 'Concert Party' accompanying a draft of his poem of the same name, 17 Apr. 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(38);return false;'>17v-18r</a>. 'On the boat', 3 May 1918: entry begins 'I get angry and scornful against the officers on board'</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(41);return false;'>19r</a>. 'Night on the Convoy', [May? 1918]</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(42);return false;'>19v-20r</a>. diary entry for 4 May 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(47);return false;'>22r-22v</a>. 'Dreams', beginning 'Last night I dreamed that I was leading my company into battle'</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(51);return false;'>24r-24v</a>. 'Demeanour (in the trenches)', 10 June 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(55);return false;'>26r</a>. 'Amenities'</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(56);return false;'>26v-27r</a>. 'Premonitions (Duhamel again)'</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(58);return false;'>27v-28v</a>. 'The other side of the picture', 14 June [1918]</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(76);return false;'>36v-38r</a>. 'What the Bishop said (or the Spiritual Equivalent of Campbell's Bayonet Fighting Lecture)', 7 July [1918]</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(79);return false;'>38r-44r</a>. 'Confessions (in hospital at the base)', 15 July [1918]</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(94);return false;'>45v-46v</a>. 'Diagnosis', 30 July [1918]</li></ul> Other:<ul><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(4);return false;'>ii(v)</a> a list of places Sassoon was posted with the 25th Battalion R.W.F. [Royal Welch Fusiliers], Dec. 1917-18 July 1918</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(112);return false;'>54v</a>. two lists of earlier poems by Sassoon, one of which gives publication dates (both are excised)</li><li><a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(113);return false;'>55r</a>. signature, 'Siegfried Sassoon, 3rd RW Fus - Dec. 1917'</li></ul> Note that the entries were not written into the notebook in chronological order. From folio <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(111);return false;'>54r</a> entries resume from the back of the notebook. The foliation is the archivist's.