Alright, I probably have this completely wrong but I'm not the best with poetry so please bare with me.

 

When I first took a look at the title, embarrassingly enough, I actually had no clue what the poem would be about. The words base and detail did not really stand out to me nor spark my essay. Possibility, no, mainly because I literally had no military knowledge. However, after repeatedly reading through the poem it sort of began to make sense to me. I soon realized it was a poem of war. The "base" in the title may refer to the military base and the writer gives details of this. Of course I got the sense of it when I began reading towards the end of the poem and the word "war" allowed me to fully comprehend. Sassoon uses a sarcastic tone, visual imagery, as well as irony to convey the speakers attitude throughout the poem. In the beginning of the poem, the reader is introduced with an image: "bald and short of breath". I'm not sure about you guys but that automatically gives me an image of a large old man sitting on the couch eating dozens of donuts. This image represents the group of officers in the military base. Furthermore, the speaker then refers to them as 'heroes' and the speaker would enter the scene with "puffy petulant face, guzzling and gulping in the best hotel". I took this line as what he actually dislikes about the officers. The reader can identify a sarcastic tone in the readers poem, being that the writer does not necessarily view them as heroes, but yet they are considered to be heroes due to their high position. Because of this, the officers are given amazing treatment, "guzzling and gulping in the best hotel." All the officers do is eat and act as of they are doing so much but nobody realizes and gives them all the credit for things they did not do. When others begin calling out heroes those large men are first to get credited. After a real solider had passed those large men, including the speaker, would be able to do the honors and claim that "I used to know his father well". But, in reality, the speaker did not but they would still get the honor to do so regardless because they're well respected. On the other hand, those who did know more than enough about the fallen angel did not get to speak and do the honors, but instead, listen to someone who was more respected with not even the slightest idea of who the man in the casket is. Once the war is over, the large bald men would go home safely. The speaker also mentions "safely home and die". Perhaps this means that the large men die in bed due to their laziness or size. Also, it could more likely refer to the fact that those men do not have to face the war because they are cuddle up in their hotel so if they were to pass away it would be snuggled up in bed, peacefully, rather than dying due to a bullet through the head-like the "real" heroes of war.