The poem
To these I turn, in these I trust; Brother Lead and Sister Steel. To his blind power I make appeal; I guard her beauty clean from rust.
He spins and burns and loves the air, And splits a skull to win my praise; But up the nobly marching days She glitters naked, cold and fair.
Sweet Sister, grant your soldier this; That in good fury he may feel The body where he sets his heel Quail from your downward darting kiss.
This poem seems to convey an inward battle in which Sassoon portrays his two different sides as a solider and a poet. This is the only poem written by Sassoon that gives an insight into his side as a war neurotic.
This poem shows Sassoon as bloodthirsty and voiolent. He is comparing man and weapon, and killing someone to a kiss. It is disturbing.