Question

Need some help with base details poem...

Base Details

IF I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,
I’d live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
You’d see me with my puffy petulant face,
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel, 5
Reading the Roll of Honour. ‘Poor young chap,’
I’d say—‘I used to know his father well;
Yes, we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap.’
And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
I’d toddle safely home and die—in bed.

Siegfried Sassoon

Question 1

In this poem, the word "base" means both:

The military installation and the fact that it is in a 'basement.'

The military installation and the people that inhabit it.

The people that work on a base and the vulgarity of sending young men off to war.

The military installation and the vulgarity of sending young men off to war.

Question 2

The word 'details' is ironic (says one thing but means another) because:

It explains all the little tasks that the soldiers have to do

It trivializes (makes it seem insignificant) the fact that young men are dying

It makes it seem like the older soldiers have done nothing to win the war

It focuses on clerks and not on soldiers

Question 3

The poem contrasts the young soldier with:
Other young soldiers

Those young men who are not in the war

Mothers of sons who do not want their sons to go to war

Older soldiers who send young men into the battlefield but who remain safe themselves.


Thanks for the help...