Practice Question 8:
The Rear-Guard
(Hindenburg Line, April 1917)
Groping along the tunnel, step by step,
He winked his prying torch with patching glare
From side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air.
Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes too vague to know,
A mirror smashed, the mattress from a bed;
And he, exploring fifty feet below
The rosy gloom of battle overhead.
Tripping, he grabbed the wall; saw someone lie
Humped at his feet, half-hidden by a rug,
And stooped to give the sleeper’s arm a tug.
‘I’m looking for headquarters.’ No reply.
‘God blast your neck!’ (For days he’d had no sleep.)
‘Get up and guide me through this stinking place.’
Savage, he kicked a soft, unanswering heap,
And flashed his beam across the livid* face
Terribly glaring up, whose eyes yet wore
Agony dying hard ten days before;
And fists of fingers clutched a blackening wound.
Alone he staggered on until he found
Dawn’s ghost that filtered down a shafted stair
To the dazed, muttering creatures underground
Who hear the boom of shells in muffled sound.
At last, with sweat of horror in his hair,
He climbed through darkness to the twilight air,
Unloading hell behind him step by step.
Siegfried Sassoon
*livid – discoloured
a)How does the writer convey the soldier’s journey in this poem?
In your answer you should consider:
- the poet’s descriptive skills
- the poet’s choice of language
b) How does the poet’s use of structure and form convey the soldier’s journey in the
poem?
Support your answer with examples from the poem.
Indicative content:
a)The poet’s descriptive skills:
- the poet graphically describes the soldier’s horrific journey ‘step by step’
through a tunnel during World War I: ‘Groping’, ‘exploring fifty feet below’,
‘Tripping’, ‘staggered’, ‘climbed’
- the soldier struggles with his senses as he makes his way along the tunnel:
‘sniffed the unwholesome air’, ‘hear the boom of shells’
- the darkness conveys the soldier’s unease and hopelessness; the description
of the torch beam emphasises the darkness: 'patching glare'
- the soldier is described as ‘savage’, suggesting that he has lost his humanity
- the harsh realities of war are described as the soldier progresses with his
journey: ‘gloom of battle overhead’, ‘someone lie/humped at his feet’,
‘blackening wound’
- the poet passes other soldiers who are described as 'dazed, muttering
creatures underground'
- the end of the journey is described as a relief: 'Unloading hell behind him'.
The poet’s choice of language:
Reward all relevant examples of language and comments on its
effectiveness, e.g.:
- the reader immediately joins the soldier on his journey with the active verb
‘Groping’
- the torch is personified, suggesting it is looking at things that it should not:
‘winked his prying torch’
- sensory images convey the soldier’s horrific journey through the tunnel:
‘Groping’, ‘sniffed the unwholesome air’, ‘stinking place’
- sibilance: ‘side to side, and sniffed’ perhaps likening him to a snake sliding
along the tunnel and the almost serpentine movement of the torch light
- the oxymoron ‘rosy gloom’ conveys the light of the battlefield overhead
- direct speech, slang and the exclamatory sentence convey the soldier’s
impatience with the dead man: ‘God blast your neck!’
- parenthesis conveys the soldier’s frustration and exhaustion: ‘(For days he’s
had no sleep.)'
- onomatopoeia enhances the sounds heard throughout the journey: ‘boom’,
‘muffled’
- the ‘unwholesome air’ and the almost romantic ‘twilight air’ provide contrast
- sensory images
- the repetition of ‘step by step’ in the first and final lines convey the relived
horrors of the journey and of war
- the tone and mood convey the soldier’s isolation, fear, horror, discomfort,
threat and of eventual relief.
b)The poet’s use of form and structure:
- third person narrative allows the reader to empathise with the soldier’s horrific
journey
- the narrative is likely to reflect the poet’s experiences or those of someone he
knew
- the stanzas vary in length, suggesting the stages of the journey through the
tunnel
- irregular rhyme reflects the soldier’s sense of unease.
Accept any valid responses.
Reward a clear personal response, provided this is well
supported from the text.
