Read the poem and answer the questions that follow:
Survivors
Siegfried Sassoon
No doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and strain
Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
Of course, they’re ‘longing to go out again,’—
These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk
They’ll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed
Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,—
Their dreams that drip with murder; and they’ll be proud
Of glorious war that shatters all their pride…
Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;
Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.           Â
 Choose the correct alternatives from the options given below:
 (a) Who are ‘they’ referred to in the first line?
 (i) survivors of the war                     (ii) civilians who have survived a war
 (iii) both of the above                       (iv) none of the above
(b) How has the war impacted them?
 (i) caused stammering/disconnected speech
 (ii) caused sleepless nights
(iii) caused physical injuries and mental trauma
(iv) all the above
 Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:                           Â
(c) Why are the survivors called ‘boys?’
 (d) Why are their nights ‘haunted’?
(e) What has the war-shattered?
 (f) What is the contrast in their condition before and after the war?
(g) Who is the speaker of the line ‘Of course they are longing to go out again’?
 (h) Who do the survivors hate and why?
Find words from the passage which mean the same as each of the following:
(i)intimidated/frightened (lines 3-5)
(j) serious (lines 8-10)
ANSWERS:-
 (a) (i)
(b) (i) (iv)
 (c) The surviving soldiers of the war are called `boys’ because the experience of war has reduced them from men to children who have to learn to talk and walk again.
(d) The survivors’ nights are haunted by the ghosts and memories of their friends who were killed at war. They have nightmares of the murders and killings they have witnessed in the battlefield.
(e) The war has shattered the soldiers’ pride. This is ironic because soldiers are supposed to be proud of fighting in `glorious’ wars.
(f) Before going to war, the soldiers are described as men of courage who gladly went to battle. After the war, they have been reduced to hateful children who are broken and mad.
 (g) The line “Of course they are longing to go out again” is not spoken by the poet. He is quoting the message that is given to the public by politicians and people in power to make them believe that injured and traumatized soldiers are willing to go back into battle. (This is true of Sassoon’s war poetry in general but please check if reads ok in the class 12 context.)
(h) The survivors hate the politicians, the people of power and perhaps even people of the nation who sent them to fight in the war while staying safe and comfortable themselves.
 (i) Cowed.
(j) Grim.
Download the above Poem in PDF Worksheet (Printable)
