Describe the tone of each stanza in Siegfried Sassoon's poem "Suicide in Trenches." Provide textual evidence to support your answer.

Here's the sample answer (Plato)

Sassoon begins the poem with a happy tone. The speaker describes the life of a good-natured, innocent boy who is far from the horrors of the war:

I knew a simple soldier boy

Who grinned at life in empty joy,

Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,

And whistled early with the lark

As the poem progresses, Sassoon shifts to a melancholy tone to describe the increasing depression of this once-joyful and lively boy. His miserable life in wartime breaks his spirit and pushes him to commit suicide in order to free himself from the suffering and hardship:

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,

With crumps and lice and lack of rum,

He put a bullet through his brain.

Sassoon ends the poem with a bitter and sarcastic tone that mocks British civilians, who he believes will never understand the horrible realities of war as they cheer the returning soldiers:

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.