The British poet and World War I soldier Siegfried Sassoon wrote "The Rear-Guard" in 1917 and published it in the collection Counter-Attack, and Other Poems. The poem illustrates the horrors and chaos of war as it follows a soldier making his way through a network of recently abandoned tunnels while the fighting continues above ground (the poem's epigraph suggests these tunnels are located along the Hindenburg Line, a lengthy German defense system). Sleep-deprived and fraught with fear, the soldier stumbles alone through the darkness of this underworld until he encounters a festering corpse that, in his confusion, he asks for directions. There's no sense of escape when the soldier finally re-emerges from the tunnels, the poem instead implying that he's just trading the horrors below for those still raging above.
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The Full Text of “The Rear-Guard”
(Hindenburg Line, April 1917)
1Groping along the tunnel, step by step,
2He winked his prying torch with patching glare
3From side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air.
4Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes too vague to know;
5A mirror smashed, the mattress from a bed;
6And he, exploring fifty feet below
7The rosy gloom of battle overhead.
8Tripping, he grabbed the wall; saw someone lie
9Humped at his feet, half-hidden by a rug.
10And stooped to give the sleeper’s arm a tug.
11“I’m looking for headquarters.” No reply.
12“God blast your neck!” (For days he’d had no sleep.)
13“Get up and guide me through this stinking place.”
14Savage, he kicked a soft, unanswering heap,
15And flashed his beam across the livid face
16Terribly glaring up, whose eyes yet wore
17Agony dying hard of ten days before;
18And fists of fingers clutched a blackening wound.
19Alone he staggered on until he found
20Dawn's ghost that filtered down a shafted stair
21To the dazed, muttering creatures underground
22Who hear the boom of shells in muffled sound.
23At last, with sweat and horror in his hair,
24He climbed through darkness to the twilight air,
25Unloading hell behind him step by step.
The Full Text of “The Rear-Guard”
(Hindenburg Line, April 1917)
1Groping along the tunnel, step by step,
2He winked his prying torch with patching glare
3From side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air.
4Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes too vague to know;
5A mirror smashed, the mattress from a bed;
6And he, exploring fifty feet below
7The rosy gloom of battle overhead.
8Tripping, he grabbed the wall; saw someone lie
9Humped at his feet, half-hidden by a rug.
10And stooped to give the sleeper’s arm a tug.
11“I’m looking for headquarters.” No reply.
12“God blast your neck!” (For days he’d had no sleep.)
13“Get up and guide me through this stinking place.”
14Savage, he kicked a soft, unanswering heap,
15And flashed his beam across the livid face
16Terribly glaring up, whose eyes yet wore
17Agony dying hard of ten days before;
18And fists of fingers clutched a blackening wound.
19Alone he staggered on until he found
20Dawn's ghost that filtered down a shafted stair
21To the dazed, muttering creatures underground
22Who hear the boom of shells in muffled sound.
23At last, with sweat and horror in his hair,
24He climbed through darkness to the twilight air,
25Unloading hell behind him step by step.
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“The Rear-Guard” Summary
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“The Rear-Guard” Themes
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The Horror of War
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Rear-Guard”
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Lines 1-3
Groping along the tunnel, step by step,
He winked his prying torch with patching glare
From side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air. -
Lines 4-7
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. -
Lines 8-13
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.” -
Lines 14-18
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 of ten days before;
And fists of fingers clutched a blackening wound. -
Lines 19-22
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. -
Lines 23-25
At last, with sweat and horror in his hair,
He climbed through darkness to the twilight air,
Unloading hell behind him step by step.
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“The Rear-Guard” Symbols
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The Soldiers' Possessions
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“The Rear-Guard” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
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Allusion
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Asyndeton
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Caesura
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Consonance
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Enjambment
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Imagery
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Metaphor
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Diacope
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“The Rear-Guard” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Groping
- Winked
- Prying
- Torch
- Patching glare
- Unwholesome
- Beam
- Livid
- Yet
- Shafted stair
- Shells
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- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Rear-Guard”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Rear-Guard” Speaker
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“The Rear-Guard” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Rear-Guard”
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More “The Rear-Guard” Resources
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External Resources
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Sassoon's Life and Work — Listen to a BBC Radio discussion about Siegfried Sassoon, focusing on his eventual opposition to the war.
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of "The Rear-Guard."
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The First World War In Colour — Watch a clip from Peter Jackson's astonishing WWI film.
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The Hindenburg Line — Check out a clip explaining the purpose of the German's defensive infrastructure.
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Sassoon's Wartime Experiences — Read a letter home from the poet himself.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Siegfried Sassoon
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