I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
This phrase indicates that the “simple soldier boy” does not exist anymore. According to Sternlicht (49), Sassoon suggests through this very first line that he is going to narrate the conditions which made the “simple soldier boy” lose his simplicity. Referencing a theme of loss, Sternlicht (50) suggests that this soldier’s simplicity has vanished to due the inhumane conditions of the trenches.
Suicide in the Trenches