Some of these poems are grim and strange, some flicker with the fire of genius, but all are hall-marked with the impress of the new age opened to us by the war, its atrocities, and its heroism. Mr. Sassoon is already an accepted and established poet. If he were not, this volume (the dedication of which is accepted by Thomas Hardy) would herald his arrival in the ranks of those who have achieved.

In this, his first volume of poetry, Sassoon included bitterly satiric poems about the war and the official attitude to it, especially the attitude of staff officers who were never in the front line. He sent a copy to Sir Douglas Haig, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in France.