r is therefore concerned with his own relationship to the nation and the collective. This contrasts with Sassoon's poetry which has a much more individual approach, apart from Absolution which argues a lack of nationalism, through his themes are similar to Brooks. In personal letters, Brooke as a war correspondent contradictively saw his own self-sacrifice as a chance to seek for a correspondent ship and to go, for some paper. War poets of the time, such as Sorley, criticised his selfishness as he was far too obsessed with his own sacrifice and had only taken the sentimental value of war. This poem nonetheless reflected the public mood of pre-war idealism, giving it popularity through its sentimental themes of patriotism and nobility.
Another piece of literature from the start of the war that showed optimism for the war would be the poem Absolution. Sassoon wrote this poem in 1915, the year he went to war, which suggests ignorance to the inevitable horrors of conflict. This poem is significantly different to his later resolutely anti-war works in its romantic elements which could have been inspired by his excitement for going to war. It consists of three stanzas composed of four lines with alternating rhyming couplets, a very common form of poetry. The poem includes strong romantic imagery such as beauty shines, golden wind and heritage of heart. This imagery glorifies war in a paradisiacal manner. The speaker believes that the side he is fighting for, his brothers and comrades, are the heroes whereas the opposing side are the foes that must be defeated. The positive connotations of war are shown in the poems presentation of a hero fighting evil in a glorified manner. This provides a typical upper-class 19th century perception of a fighting man or a war hero figure, a stereotype still held in the outbreak of the war. This division can be linked to the novel Regeneration in which there is the division between the protagonist, Rivers, an...