(03.04 HC) Siegfried Sassoon was an English war poet, writer…
(03.04 HC) Siegfried Sassoon was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. During World War I, he served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers and saw action in France, earning him the Military Cross. However, as the war progressed, Sassoon was injured and, in turn, became increasingly disillusioned with the conflict. On July 6, 1917, Sassoon penned a powerful letter to his commanding officer openly criticizing the war. “A Soldier’s Declaration” was picked up by newspapers and was read by Sassoon to the House of Commons on July 30, 1917. Read his speech carefully. Write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical choices Sassoon makes to reflect the disillusionment and anger felt by many soldiers during World War I. In your response you should do the following: Respond to the prompt with a thesis that analyzes the writer’s rhetorical choices. Select and use evidence to support your line of reasoning. Explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning. Demonstrate an understanding of the rhetorical situation. Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument. I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those how have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe this War, upon which I entered as a war of defense and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow-soldiers entered upon this War should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible for them to be changed without our knowledge, and that, has this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation. I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolonging those sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the military conduct of the War, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. On behalf of those who are suffering now, I make this protest against the deception which is being practiced on them. Also I believe that it may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those as home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize. Read before the House of Commons, July 30, 1917, printed in The London Times, on July 31, 1917 (ironically — perhaps appropriately — the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres, Passchendaele). Siegfried Sassoon. Speech by Siegfried Transcript. Pdf. Retrieved from Brigham Young University Library. NOTE: Your essay will be graded using the 0–6 point rubric that is used for all AP Language and Composition Exam essays. With this in mind, your essay should be fully developed and of considerable length, as it would be for the AP Language and Composition exam.