Down The Glimmering Staircase - Música

Down The Glimmering Staircase by Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Sassoon

Biografia do Artista para Siegfried Sassoon

Sassoon Was Born In A House Named Weirleigh Which Still Stands In The Village Of Matfield Kent To A Jewish Father And A Protestant English Mother. His Father Alfred One Of The Wealthy Indian Baghdadi Jewish Sassoon Merchant Family Was Disinherited For Marrying Outside The Faith. His Mother Theresa Belonged To The Thornycroft Family Sculptors Responsible For Many Of The Best-Known Statues In London—her Brother Was Sir Hamo Thornycroft. There Was No German Ancestry In Sassoon's Family He Owed His Unusual First Name To His Mother's Predilection For The Operas Of Wagner. His Middle Name Was Taken From The Surname Of A Clergyman With Whom She Was Friendly. Sassoon Was Educated At The New Beacon Preparatory School Kent Marlborough College In Wiltshire And At Clare College Cambridge Of Which He Was Made An Honorary Fellow In 1953 Where He Studied Both Law And History From 1905 To 1907. However He Dropped Out Of University Without A Degree And Spent The Next Few Years Hunting Playing Cricket And Privately Publishing A Few Volumes Of Not Very Highly Acclaimed Poetry. His Income Was Just Enough To Prevent His Having To Seek Work But Not Enough To Live Extravagantly. His First Real Success Was The Daffodil Murderer A Parody Of The Everlasting Mercy By John Masefield Published In 1913 Under The Pseudonym Of "Saul Kain". War Service
Sassoon Motivated By Patriotism Joined The Military Just As The Threat Of World War I Was Realised And Was In Service With The Sussex Yeomanry On The Day Britain Declared War August 4 1914 . He Broke His Arm Badly In A Riding Accident And Was Put Out Of Action Before Even Leaving England Spending The Spring Of 1915 Convalescing. In May Of That Year He Joined The Royal Welch Fusiliers As A Commissioned Officer And In November He Was Sent To First Battalion In France. He Was Thus Brought Into Contact With Robert Graves And They Became Close Friends. United By Their Poetic Vocation They Often Read And Discussed One Another's Work. Though This Did Not Have Much Perceptible Influence On Graves's Poetry His Views On What May Be Called 'gritty Realism' Profoundly Affected Sassoon's Concept Of What Constituted Poetry. He Soon Became Horrified By The Realities Of War And The Tone Of His Writing Changed Completely Where His Early Poems Exhibit A Romantic Dilettantish Sweetness His War Poetry Moves To An Increasingly Discordant Music Intended To Convey The Ugly Truths Of The Trenches To An Audience Hitherto Lulled By Patriotic Propaganda. Details Such As Rotting Corpses Mangled Limbs Filth Cowardice And Suicide Are All Trademarks Of His Work At This Time And This Philosophy Of 'no Truth Unfitting' Had A Significant Effect On The Movement Towards Modernist Poetry. Sassoon's Periods Of Duty On The Western Front Were Marked By Recklessly Brave Actions Including The Single-Handed Capture Of A German Trench In The Hindenburg Line. He Often Went Out On Night-Raids And Bombing Patrols And Demonstrated Ruthless Efficiency As A Company Commander. Deepening Depression At The Horror And Misery The Soldiers Were Forced To Endure Produced In Sassoon A Paradoxically Manic Courage And He Was Nicknamed "Mad Jack" By His Men For His Near-Suicidal Exploits. Despite Having Been Decorated For Bravery He Decided In 1917 To Make A Stand Against The Conduct Of The War. One Of The Reasons For His Violent Anti-War Feeling Was The Death Of His Friend David Cuthbert Thomas Called "Dick Tiltwood" In The Sherston Trilogy . He Would Spend Years Trying To Overcome His Grief. Having Thrown His Military Cross Into The River Mersey At The End Of A Spell Of Convalescent Leave Sassoon Declined To Return To Duty. Instead Encouraged By Pacifist Friends Such As Bertrand Russell And Lady Ottoline Morrell He Sent A Letter To His Commanding Officer Titled A Soldier's Declaration Which Was Forwarded To The Press And Read Out In Parliament By A Sympathetic MP. Wikisource Has Original Text Related To This Article Rather Than Court-Martial Sassoon The Military Authorities Decided That He Was Unfit For Service And Sent Him To Craiglockhart War Hospital Near Edinburgh Where He Was Officially Treated For Neurasthenia 'shell Shock' . The Novel Regeneration By Pat Barker Is A Fictionalised Account Of This Period In Sassoon's Life And Was Made Into A Film Starring Jonathan Pryce As W. H. R. Rivers The Psychiatrist Responsible For Sassoon's Recovery. Rivers Became A Kind Of Surrogate Father To The Troubled Young Man And His Sudden Death In 1922 Was A Major Blow To Sassoon. At Craiglockhart Sassoon Met Wilfred Owen Another Poet Who Was Eventually To Exceed Him In Fame. It Was Thanks To Sassoon That Owen Persevered In His Ambition To Write Better Poetry. A Manuscript Copy Of Owen's Anthem For Doomed Youth Containing Sassoon's Handwritten Amendments Survives As Testimony To The Extent Of His Influence. To All Intents And Purposes Sassoon Became To Owen 'Keats And Christ And Elijah' Surviving Documents Demonstrate Clearly The Depth Of Owen's Love And Admiration For Him. Both Men Returned To Active Service In France But Owen Was Killed On November 4 1918 One Week Before The Armistice. Sassoon Having Spent Some Time Out Of Danger In Palestine Eventually Returned To The Front Was Almost Immediately Wounded Again - By Friendly Fire But This Time In The Head - And Spent The Remainder Of The War In Britain. After The War Sassoon Was Instrumental In Bringing Owen's Work To The Attention Of A Wider Audience. Their Friendship Is The Subject Of Stephen MacDonald's Play Not About Heroes. Post-War
The War Had Brought Sassoon Into Contact With Men Of A Lower Social Class And He Had Developed Socialist Sympathies. Having Lived For A Period At Oxford Where He Spent More Time Visiting Literary Friends Than Studying He Dabbled Briefly In The Politics Of The Labour Movement And In 1919 Took Up A Post As Literary Editor Of The Socialist Daily Herald. During His Period At The Herald Sassoon Was Responsible For Employing Several Eminent Names As Reviewers Including E. M. Forster And Charlotte Mew And Commissioned Original Material From "names" Like Arnold Bennett And Osbert Sitwell. His Artistic Interests Extended To Music. While At Oxford He Was Introduced To The Young William Walton Whose Friend And Patron He Became. Walton Later Dedicated His Portsmouth Point Overture To Sassoon In Recognition Of His Financial Assistance And Moral Support. Siegfried SassoonSassoon Later Embarked On A Lecture Tour Of The USA As Well As Travelling In Europe And Throughout Britain. He Acquired A Car A Gift From The Publisher Frankie Schuster And Became Renowned Among His Friends For His Lack Of Driving Skill But This Did Not Prevent Him Making Full Use Of The Mobility It Gave Him. Meanwhile He Was Beginning To Practice His Homosexuality More Openly Embarking On An Affair With The Artist Gabriel Atkin Who Had Been Introduced By Mutual Friends. During His US Tour He Met A Young Actor Who Treated Him Callously. Nevertheless He Was Adored By Female Audiences Including One At Vassar College. Sassoon Was A Great Admirer Of The Welsh Poet Henry Vaughan. On A Visit To Wales In 1923 He Paid A Pilgrimage To Vaughan's Grave At Llansanffraid Powys And There Wrote One Of His Best-Known Peacetime Poems At The Grave Of Henry Vaughan. The Deaths Of Three Of His Closest Friends Edmund Gosse Thomas Hardy And Frankie Schuster The Publisher Within A Short Space Of Time Came As Another Serious Setback To His Personal Happiness. At The Same Time Sassoon Was Preparing To Take A New Direction. While In America He Had Experimented With A Novel. In 1928 He Branched Out Into Prose With Memoirs Of A Fox-Hunting Man The Anonymously-Published First Volume Of A Fictionalised Autobiography Which Was Almost Immediately Accepted As A Classic Bringing Its Author New Fame As A Humorous Writer. The Book Won The 1928 James Tait Black Award For Fiction. Sassoon Followed It With Memoirs Of An Infantry Officer 1930 And Sherston's Progress 1936 . In Later Years He Revisited His Youth And Early Manhood With Three Volumes Of Genuine Autobiography Which Were Also Widely Acclaimed. These Were The Old Century The Weald Of Youth And Siegfried's Journey. Sassoon Having Matured Greatly As A Result Of His Military Service Continued To Seek Emotional Fulfilment Which He At First Attempted To Find In A Succession Of Love Affairs With Men Including The Actor Ivor Novello Novello's Former Lover The Actor Glen Byam Shaw German Aristocrat Prince Philipp Of Hesse The Writer Beverley Nichols And The Effete Aristocrat The Hon. Stephen Tennant. Unfortunately Sassoon Was Wont To Become Disenchanted With His Lovers Once The First Flush Of Romance Had Faded. In 1933 To Many People's Surprise He Married Hester Gatty In December 1933 Who Was Many Years His Junior This Led To The Birth Of A Child Something Which He Had Long Craved. This Child Their Only Child George 1936-2006 Became A Noted Scientist Linguist And Author And Was Adored By Siegfried Who Wrote Several Poems Addressed To Him. However The Marriage Broke Down After World War II. Separated From His Wife In 1945 Sassoon Lived In Seclusion At Heytesbury In Wiltshire Although He Maintained Contact With A Circle Which Included E. M. Forster And J. R. Ackerley. One Of His Closest Friends Was The Young Cricketer Dennis Silk. Towards The End Of His Long Life He Was Converted To Roman Catholicism And Was Admitted To The Faith At Downside Abbey Close To His Home. He Also Paid Regular Visits To The Nuns At Stanbrook Abbey And The Abbey Press Printed Commemorative Editions Of Some Of His Poems. He Died 7 Days Before His 81st Birthday And Is Buried At St Andrew's Church Mells Somerset Close To Ronald Knox A Roman Catholic Priest And Writer Whom He Admired. Siegfried Sassoon's Only Child George Sassoon Died Of Cancer In 2006. George Had Three Children Two Of Whom Were Killed In A Car Crash In 1996. Poetry
The Daffodil Murderer John Richmond 1913 The Old Huntsman Heinemann 1917 Counter-Attack Heinemann 1918 Picture-Show Heinemann 1919 War Poems Heinemann 1919 Recreations Privately Printed 1923 Lingual Exercises For Advanced Vocabularians Privately Printed 1925 Selected Poems Heinemann 1925 Satirical Poems Heinemann 1926 The Heart's Journey Heinemann 1928 Poems By Pinchbeck Lyre Duckworth 1931 The Road To Ruin Faber And Faber 1933 Vigils Heinemann 1935 Rhymed Ruminations Faber And Faber 1940 Poems Newly Selected Faber And Faber 1940 Collected Poems Faber And Faber 1947 Common Chords Privately Printed 1950/1951 Emblems Of Experience Privately Printed 1951 The Tasking Privately Printed 1954 Sequences Faber And Faber 1956 Lenten Illuminations Privately Printed 1958 The Path To Peace Stanbrook Abbey Press 1960 Collected Poems 1908-1956 Faber And Faber 1961 The War Poems Ed. Rupert Hart-Davis Faber And Faber 1983 Prose
Memoirs Of A Fox-Hunting Man Faber & Gwyer 1928 Memoirs Of An Infantry Officer Faber And Faber 1930 Sherston's Progress Faber And Faber 1936 Complete Memoirs Of George Sherston Faber And Faber 1937 The Old Century Faber And Faber 1938 On Poetry University Of Bristol Press 1939 The Weald Of Youth Faber And Faber 1942 Siegfried's Journey Faber And Faber 1945 Meredith Constable 1948 References
Felicitas Corrigan Siegfried Sassoon Poet's Pilgrimage 1973 ISBN 0-575-01721-X A Collection Of Sassoon's Diary-Entries And Correspondence Marking His Gradual Spiritual Development Towards Roman Catholicism. Jean Moorcroft Wilson Siegfried Sassoon The Making Of A War Poet 1998 ISBN 0-7156-2822-4 Jean Moorcroft Wilson Siegfried Sassoon The Journey From The Trenches 2003 ISBN 0-7156-2971-9 John Stuart Roberts Siegfried Sassoon 1999 ISBN 1-86066-151-3 Max Egremont Siegfried Sassoon 2005 ISBN 0-330-37526-1 External Links
Siegfried Sassoon - War Poet The Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship Was Founded In 2001 And Its Web Site Contains Further Information About Sassoon. Siegfried Sassoon Poems Of War And Peace A Collection Of War Poetry By Sassoon Including Poems From The Old Huntsman And Counter-Attack. The Collection Includes Jpg Reproductions Of Water Color And Oil Paintings Produced By Soldiers And War Correspondents Of That Time. Poems Used By Kind Permission C Bartleby Library Columbia University New York. Works By Siegfried Sassoon At Project Gutenberg Poetry Archive 155 Poems Of Siegfried Sassoon War Poets Association Retrieved From "http //en.Wikipedia.Org/wiki/Siegfried_Sassoon"