Base Details

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Base Details is a war poem by the English war poet Siegfried Sassoon. In the poem Sassoon condemns what he saw as the incompetence and callous indifference to the soldiers at the front displayed by the staff officers, or "scarlet majors" of the British Army, who stayed at the Base "Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel" and sending "glum heroes up the line to death". Like so many of Sassoon's poems "Base Details" is bitterly sarcastic and utterly derisive of the comfortable establishment that supported the continuation of the war while showing little concern for the people who suffered its consequences.

If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,

I’d live with scarlet Majors at the Base,

And speed glum heroes up the line to death.

You’d see me with my puffy petulant face,

Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,

Reading the Roll of Honour. ‘Poor young chap,’

I’d say—‘I used to know his father well;

Yes, we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap.’

And when the war is done and youth stone dead,

I’d toddle safely home and die—in bed.

Theme: The theme is anger and bitterness.This is an attack on those who start wars and send their fellow men to their death.These army officers plan battles from safety of base-armchair soldiers-they are usually not involved in the fighting. Unlike the men at the front, the majors lives are not in danger.