"Suicide in the Trenches" is one of the many poems the English poet Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967) composed in response to World War I, reflecting his own notable service in that especially bloody conflict. Sassoon was a brave and gallant upper-class officer who eventually opposed the war, but he never lost his admiration for the common soldiers who had to fight it. Sassoon felt contempt for the political leaders and civilian war hawks who, safe in their power and comfort, sent young men off to die in huge battles that seemed futile and pointless. The poem exemplifies the sensibility of war poets in avoiding sentimentality and self-pity while describing the realities of war. It tells of the suicide of a young man sent off to war and attacks the "smug-faced" crowds who greet the returning soldiers.
