You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you'll never know The hell where youth and laughter go.
This haunting excerpt from Siegfried Sassoon’s "The War Poems" starkly captures the bitter irony between public perception of war and the brutal reality endured by soldiers. Sassoon addresses the crowd with a tone of harsh condemnation, labeling them as "smug-faced" — a vivid image that immediately sets a scene of hypocrisy. These onlookers, with their "kindling eye," seem to be filled with a kind of fervent enthusiasm or national pride when watching young men in uniform march by. There’s an unsettling contrast between the crowd’s hopeful or even celebratory disposition and the hidden, horrific truth facing the soldiers.
The final two lines deepen the emotional impact, as Sassoon’s words almost mockingly suggest that those who cheer on the young soldiers are also those who “sneak home” and quietly wish to avoid ever confronting the
