Notebook comprising fair copies, with some revisions, of 'Poems: by Siegfried Sassoon 1916' and 'Poems: 1917-18' (including some earlier poems dated 1908-1915). It appears to be Sassoon's own collection of his war poetry. The first poems in each section are numbered and some pages have been torn out by Sassoon, leaving an incomplete sequence; later poems are unnumbered. Many are dated, with details of their publication sometimes given. Contents:

'Poems: by Siegfried Sassoon 1916': /1v-69r. Includes: - Two quotations from 'Macbeth' by William Shakespeare and from Thomas Traherne: /1v. - Title page, with Sassoon's monogram: /2r. - A note giving the publication dates of 'The Old Huntsman and Other Poems' and 'Counter-Attack and Other Poems': /2v. - 'Golgotha', Mar. 1916: /3r. - 'A Subaltern', Mar. 1916, with annotation 'C.M. March 1917': /4r. - 'Brothers', Dec. 1915, with revisions: /5r. - 'To Victory', Jan. 1916, with revisions: /6r. - 'Absolution', Apr. and Sept. 1915: /7r. - 'The Dragon and the Undying', Feb. 1916: /8r. - 'France', May 1916: /9r. - 'In the Pink', 10 Feb. 1916: /10r. - 'To his Dead Body', Aug. 1916, with revision: /11r. - 'Stand-to: Good Friday Morning', Apr. 1916, with revisions and annotation (includes two additional lines to the published version): /12r. - 'The Redeemer', Mar. 1916, from a draft made in Nov. 1915: /13r-14r. - 'The Road', Aug. 1916: /15r. - 'The Death-Bed', Aug. 1916: /16r-17r. - 'Stretcher-Case', Aug. 1916: /18r. - 'The Hero', Aug. 1916: /19r. - 'The One-Legged Man', Aug. 1916: /20r. - 'Conscripts', with revision: /21r. - 'The Tombstone-Maker', Oct. 1916, with revisions: /23r. - 'Blighters', 4 Feb. 1917, with revisions: /23v. - 'They', 31 Oct. 1916: /24r. - 'The March Past', Dec. 1916 (excised): /24v. - 'Died of Wounds', July 1916, with revision: /25r. - 'Secret Music', Dec. 1916: /25v. - 'At Carnoy: July 3rd 1916', July 1916, with revisions: /26r. - 'Decorated', Nov. 1916 (excised): /26v. - 'A Mystic as Soldier', Nov. 1916, with revisions: /27r. - 'Enemies', Jan. 1917, with revisions: /27v. - 'Two Hundred Years after', Oct. 1916, with revision and annotation 'C.M. Feb. 1917': /28r. - 'A Working Party', 30 Mar. 1916, with revisions and annotation 'written during my first tour of trenches': /28v-29r. - 'Arms and the Man', Nov. 1916: /30r. - 'The Choral Union', Dec. 1916, with revisions: /31r. - 'A Whispered Tale (To J.D.)' [Julian Dadd]', Dec. 1916, with revisions: /31v. - 'The Distant Song', Dec. 1916, with revision and annotation 'versified from trench diary. A phrase or two used for end of F.H.M.' ['Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man']: /32r. - 'Morning Glory', Aug. 1916: /33r. - 'To-Day', Feb. 1915, with revisions: /33v. - 'A Poplar and the Moon', May 1916: /34r. - 'Before the Battle', Bussy-le-Daours, 25 June 1916, with revisions: /34v. - 'Wind in the Beechwood', May 1916: /35r. - 'A Letter Home [to Robert Graves]', May 1916, with revisions: /36r-38r. - 'Tree and Sky', Feb. 1915, with revision: /38v. - 'A Child's Prayer', Feb. 1915: /39r. - 'Companions', Mar. 1915: /39v. - 'Dream-Forest', July 1914: /40r. - 'South Wind', June 1914: /40v. - 'Blind', Mar. 1915: /41r. - 'Ancestors', Mar. 1915: /42r. - 'Morning Express', Mar. 1915: /43r. - 'Liquor-Control [to Roderick Meiklejohn Esq. C.B.]', Sept. 1916: /44r. - 'Policeman', Apr. 1915: /44v. - 'David Cleek', Nov. 1916: /45r. - 'Haunted', July 1914, with revisions: /46r-47r. - 'The Last Meeting', May 1916, with revisions: /48r-53r. - 'Wisdom', Mar. 1915: /53v. - 'Alone', Apr. 1915: /54r. - 'Noah', Mar. 1915: /55r. - 'A Wanderer', 1912, with revisions: /55v. - 'Nimrod in September', Sept. 1913: /56r. - 'The Old Huntsman', Mar. 1915, with revisions: /57r-63r. - 'The Shepherd', 1910 (excised): /63v. - 'Morning-Land', 1911: /64r. - 'Arcady Unheeding', 1911: /64r. - 'Daybreak in a Garden', Feb. 1915, with revisions: /64v. - 'Dryads', 1909, with revision: /65r. - 'Villon', 1909, with revisions: /65v. - 'An Old French Poet', 1909: /66r. - 'Before Day', 1909: /66r. - 'Night-Piece', 1911, with revisions: /67r. - 'Gibbet', 1910-1911 (excised): /67v. - 'Goblin-Revel', 1910, with revisions: /68r. - 'October', 1908: /68v. - 'The Heritage', 1912, with revision: /69r. 'Poems: 1917-18': /69v-93r. Includes: - Quotation from Thomas Hardy, 'The Dynasts', III.5.v: /69v. - Title page, with quotation from Walt Whitman ['Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking'] and Sassoon's monogram: /70r. - Note giving details of where various poems were published: /70v. - 'Invocation', Jan. 1918, with revisions: /71r. - 'Wraiths', Sept. 1918, with revisions: /71v. - 'Butterflies', Aug. 1918, with revisions: /72r. - 'Memory', Feb. 1918, with annotation: /73r. - 'Idyll', Jan. 1918: /74r. - 'Miracles', 9 Jan. 1919: /74v. - 'The Dug-Out', Aug. 1918, with four additional lines which are excised and marked 'cut this out': /76r. - 'Vision', Aug. 1918, with revisions: /76v. - 'Battalion-Relief', July 1918, with revisions and heavily underlined: /90r. - 'Memorial Tablet (Great War)', Nov. 1918: /90v. - 'Reconciliation', Nov. 1918: /91r. - 'Devotion to Duty', Feb. 1919: /91r. - 'Sporting Acquaintances', June 1914: /91v. - 'In the Church of St. Ouen', 4 Mar. 1917, with revision: /92r. - 'Christ and the Soldier', 5 Aug. 1916, with revisions and enclosed note by Sassoon (see enclosure MS Add.9852/6/2/2): /92v-93r. Entries continue from the back of the notebook, running from folio /99 to 94: - 'Notes on Poems 1916' (32 notes): /95v-98v. - Occasional verses: 'A Testament', Montagne, 1 Jan. 1916: /95r; 'The Crown', July 1916 (excised): /94v; 'Blighty', Dec. 1916: /94v; 'A Ballad', Oct. 1916: /94r. - Sassoon's initials: /99r.

Sassoon used this notebook from both ends. Enclosures are to be found in separate envelopes. The foliation is the archivist's.