The General (poem)
“Good-morning, good-morning!” the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,
And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
“He's a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.
But he did for them both by his plan of attack.
The General is a war poem by the English war poet Siegfried Sassoon that takes place in World War I, specifically in the Battle of Arras. Written in April 1917 from Sassoon's hospital bed in London while recovering from a shoulder wound received while leading a bombing assault, the poem is about a general who greets soldiers as they arrive onto the front lines. However, that was a week ago, and now most of the soldiers are dead. The surviving soldiers curse at his lack of competence. One soldier, Harry, says to Jack, another soldier, that he is surprisingly cheery given that soldiers march onto war. The poem ends by telling us that Harry and Jack were killed directly due to the general's battle plans.