Papers of Siegfried Sassoon

Notebook containing poetical drafts (mostly dated 1918), autobiographical notes or prose drafts, with some diary entries. Contents include:

A list of places Sassoon was posted with the 25th Battalion R.W.F. [Royal Welch Fusiliers], Dec. 1917-18 July 1918: /inside front cover.

Drafts of poetry:

- Poem beginning 'Birds have their singing time' (poem is excised): /1v.

- 'I Stood with the Dead', 18 June 1918: /2r.

- 'Flamingoes' (sic): /3r & 14r-15r.

- 'Near Port Said' (excised): /3v.

- 'Can I forget ...', 10 Aug. [1918]: /4v.

- Poem beginning 'Soldiers are [heroes?] to the yelping pack' (text is faint), with drawing: /5r.

- Draft lines of poetry beginning 'I've listened since the war began' (excised; text is faint and partially erased): /6r.

- 'Hawthornden (to R.S.M.)' [Roderick Sinclair Meiklejohn], St. Hilaire, 6 July 1918: /6v, 7r & 8r.

- 'Shadows', 16 April 1918 (text is very faint): /7v.

- 'Concert-Party': /10v-13r.

- 'His Epitaph (in the old-fashioned artificial manner)': /15v.

- 'Civilisation (on the boat)', May 1918: /16v-17r.

- Poem beginning 'For the last time I say, War is not glorious', 3 May 1918: /18v.

- 'On reading de la Mairs' (sic) poems after the day's work' [Walter de la Mare], 3 June 1918, (excised): /20v-21v.

- 'Colin', 12 June 1918 (text is faint and largely illegible): /25v.

- 'Requiescant', 4 Aug. 1918: /29r.

- 'A Soldier's Complaint', 21 June [1918] (excised): /29v-30r.

- 'The Spirit of the Bayonet', 21 June [1918]: /31r.

- Two drafts of 'Tactical Points', 5 June [1918] (excised): /31v-33r.

- 'To any Father who thinks War Splendid', 22 June [1918]: /33v-34r.

- Poem beginning 'For they are dwellers in the dark', 28 June [1918] (excised): /35v.

- Poem beginning 'I read your songs of birds and flowers and tress' (excised): /36r.

- 'Pursuit', 19 July [1918] (excised): /44v-45r.

- Poem beginning 'I love all things that pass': /47v-48r.

- Two drafts of 'Jesus in Heaven', 3 Aug. [1918]: /48v-49v.

- 'The Crucifix', 7 Aug. 1918 (excised): /50r.

- Draft lines of poetry, some of which were later used in 'The Dug-Out', Lancaster Gate, 9 Aug. 1918: /50v-51r.

- Draft of the poem 'Great Men': /51v-53r.

- 'B.G.C', June 1918: /54r (notebook was inverted for this entry).

Prose and diary entries:

- 'Incidents', Kantara, Egypt, April [1918]: /2v.

- 'On the March', Ludd, Palestine, April 1918: /4r.

- Diary entry dated 15 April [1918]: /5v.

- 'Concert Party' accompanying a draft of his poem of the same name, 17 Apr. 1918: /8v-13r.

- 'On the boat', 3 May 1918: entry begins 'I get angry and scornful against the officers on board': /17v-18r.

- 'Night on the Convoy', [May? 1918]: /19r.

- Diary entry for 4 May 1918: /19v-20r.

- 'Dreams', beginning 'Last night I dreamed that I was leading my company into battle': /22.

- 'Demeanour (in the trenches)', 10 June 1918: /24.

- 'Amenities': /26r.

- 'Premonitions (Duhamel again)' [George Duhamel]: /26v-27r.

- 'The other side of the picture', 14 June [1918]: /27v-28v.

- 'What the Bishop said (or the Spiritual Equivalent of Campbell's Bayonet Fighting Lecture)', 7 July [1918]: /36v-38r.

- 'Confessions (in hospital at the base)', 15 July [1918]: /38r-44r.

- 'Diagnosis', 30 July [1918]: /45v-46v.

Two lists of earlier poems by Sassoon, one of which gives publication dates (both are excised): /54v.

Signed 'Siegfried Sassoon, 3rd RW Fus - Dec. 1917': /inside back cover.

Note that the entries were not written into the notebook in chronological order. The foliation is the archivist's.

This item is currently unavailable for consultation due to its poor physical condition.

Many of the entries from this notebook have been published in Rupert Hart-Davis ed. 'Siegfried Sassoon: Diaries 1915-1918' (London, 1983).