Memories

The poem “Repression of War Experiences” by Siegfried Sassoon talks about a man who is having trouble keeping the memories of war from taking over his life. The speaker, the different diction and several metaphors used in this poem enhance the tone of “Repression of War Experiences” to a point where the audience can really feel the man’s periodic panic and calm as he descends into madness.

In the poem “Repression of War Experiences” the speaker is a man who has obviously experienced war and is trying to repress it like the title suggests. Because the speaker is the man who is slowly losing it the audience experiences the raw emotion coming from the author about the pain that he is trying to repress. As a result of this onslaught of emotion the connection between the speaker and the audience is immediate and you are drawn into the poem further. As the speaker is struggling with the war experiences, it feels as if we are privy to his inner thoughts as he slowly deteriorates.

The diction in this poem changes between panicked diction and calm. The calm diction that is used gives that poem a calm that feels forced in a way because it is coupled with bursts of panic. The calm diction in this poem is predominantly in the beginning of each section. The calming diction in the first section is how they are short and not complex, “Now light the candles; one ; two…” This also appears to relax the man until the third line where the diction becomes more panicked as does the tone. The panicked diction is also darker as he begins to talk about “gagged,” going mad, “ugly thoughts,” “jabber.” All of these words make the reader feel as if the man is becoming panicked which is reflected in the tone and felt by the readers. Similar diction is used in the third section where the diction becomes more extreme. At the beginning of the third section the diction is quite calm as he focuses on the books being “jolly company” as well as “quiet and patient.” This word are quite calming as well as relatively happy, whereas near the end of the section “breathless air,” “ghosts,” “gnaw,” “ugly,” and “nasty” is darker diction as the tone of the poem gets darker and more frantic and the mad delves back into the painful memories.

The metaphors in this poem are quite interesting because the man first speaks about things literally and then suddenly flows into what they mean figuratively. For example, in the first section the Sassoon says that “Now light the candles; one; two; there’s a moth; what silly beggars they are to blunder in and scorch their wings with glory,” as he tells us that there is a moth he slowly trickles into its representation in the war. Because of this direct connection made by the speaker it is apparent that the war is not staying repressed as he wants it too, but rather pushing forward through common occurrences.

The tone in this poem is very important and it enhanced from many different places. The tone in “Repression of War Experiences” changes significantly throughout the poem. In the first few sections it appears to be calm to small bouts of panic and then to a forced calm that he struggles for. However by the last section of the poem it is apparent that he has slowly been losing the battle with his war memories and they are now coming back because it begins calm and reassuring and then jumps directly to extreme panic and madness.