The
Hero
Jack fell as hed have wished, the Mother said,
And folded up the letter that shed read.
The Colonel writes so nicely. Something broke
In the tired voice that quavered to a choke.
She half looked up. We mothers are so proud
Of our dead soldiers. Then her face was bowed.
Quietly the Brother Officer went out,
Hed told the poor old dear some gallant lies
That she would nourish all her days, no doubt.
For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyes
Had shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,
Because hed been so brave, her glorious boy.
He thought how Jack, cold-footed, useless swine
Had panicked down the trench that night the mine
Went up at Wicked Corner; how hed tried
To get sent home, and how, at last, he died,
Blown to small bits. And no one seemed to care
Expect that lonely woman with white hair.
Siegfried Sassoon
War is a painful thing to a mother when her son is killed fighting
in it. But the pain is lessened when she knows that he dies a
heros death. Her pride in him overcomes her sorrow. In this poem,
the mother receives a letter about her son, Jack, a soldier who has
been killed. The letter is from her sons commanding officer. She
is filled with pride about the heroic way her Jack has died. But
that is not the truth. She has been spared the truth which would
probably be more painful to her than her sons death itself.
Federal Anthology of Poetry 2
My comments:
A mother knows her son best. Since she is so convince that her son
died a heroic death, there is a high chance that Jack was not as
cowardly as he was described by the author.
I am also very uncomfortable of the very harsh words used to
describe Jack. He was called a useless swine, and was blown to
small bits and no one seemed to care. Maybe that is the reality
of war, but it seems that the author cant wait for Jack to die,
and how, at last, he died,
I think this author is a bit too harsh. 
