'The Death Bed' by Siegfried Sassoon - Background Information

While researching into Siegfried Sassoon I came across a book that included all of Sassoon's poems. 

The book was called 'Siegfried Sassoon: The War Poems, arranged and introduced by Rupert Hart-Davies.'

The first page I went to was 'The Death Bed' poem as that was the one I was focusing on for my Fiction Adaption project.

At the end of the poem I noticed a small note that said:
"Weirliegh, August 1916. A memory of hospital at Amiens and a canoe on the Cherwell."

I'm guessing the note was the time of when and where the poem was written as well as what the poem was roughly inspired by.

I decided to look through the book again and came across a couple of pages on 'biographical table' that that included detailed bullet points on where Sassoon was during the First World War (1914-1918).

I looked on the year 1916 and found a couple of bullet points on the month August. Here are the bullet points:

- Invalided home with trench fever

- In hospital at Somerville College, Oxford

- Convalescent at Warleigh

The word 'convalescent' caught my eye, so I decided to research the meaning and the definition said, '(of a person) recovering from an illness or medical treatment.'

Knowing that Sassoon was in hospital around the time of writing 'The Death Bed' poem, explains why the poem is based on a soldier dying, maybe it was something Sassoon saw happen while he was in hospital.

After reading this book I decided to research online to see if I could find out more information on the background of the poem.

I found a website, that had a couple of paragraphs about the background of the poem.

http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/the-death-bed/

Here is what it mentioned:

"'The Death bed' offers a harrowing account of a dying soldier who moves in and out of consciousness. Though he is in hospital, there are frequent reminders of his ordeals in the trenches from the relentless weather conditions to the 'thudding of the guns.' Siegfried Sassoon uses the extended metaphor of water and waves along the shoreline to symbolise how the soldier is on the border between life and death; his existence gradually 'washed away'.

Sassoon compares the soldier's pain to a 'prowling beast' that grips and tears at his energy and demising dreams. This is all before the 'death' looms and takes the soldiers life. Sassoon makes this scene particularly poignant by hinting at the soldiers youth and the horrors he has witnessed. His rhetorical questions serves to challenge the injustice of the conflict and the stubbornness of those who have the power to end it."

I definitely have a much better understanding of 'The Death Bed'. I'm glad I researched into this poem as I feel it has inspired me with some ideas I would like to include in my film. This poem has a darkness to it as it is about someone dying and I would really like to show that in my short film.