Imagery and metaphors

Figures of speech or tropes are important aspects of both poems and prose texts. In “Suicide in the Trenches”, Siegfried Sassoon relies on imagery, metaphors, personification and symbols to convey his message.

Imagery

Imagery is a term used to define the overall images an author conveys through the use of descriptive words. For instance, in “Suicide in the Trenches”, each stanza creates a different overall image. In the first stanza, we can imagine the soldier being filled with joy, sleeping without worries and whistling in the morning:

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Metaphors & Personification

A few metaphors further add to the text’s lyrical qualities. By metaphors, we understand implicit comparisons and associations. The poet uses the expression “empty joy” (l. 2) as a metaphor for the soldier’s naivety while the “lonesome dark” (l. 3) may represent the night but also the soldier’s solitude.

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Symbols

Several symbols also mark the poem and make it more appealing.

The lark (l. 4), which is a bird, is a symbol of spring and implicitly of life, while the “winter trenches” (l. 5) are a symbol of death and burial because winter represents the end of a cycle in nature.

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