1. SERGEANT-MAJOR MONEY
(1917)
Robert Graves
By Tamanna Begum-Chowdhury

2. SERGEANT-MAJOR MONEY
It wasn't our battalion, but we lay alongside it,
So the story is as true as the telling is frank.
They hadn't one Line-officer left, after Arras,
Except a batty major and the Colonel, who drank.
'B' Company Commander was fresh from the Depot,
An expert on gas drill, otherwise a dud;
So Sergeant-Major Money carried on, as instructed,
And that's where the swaddies began to sweat blood.
His Old Army humour was so well-spiced and hearty
That one poor sod shot himself, and one lost his wits;
But discipline's maintained, and back in rest-billets
The Colonel congratulates 'B' Company on their kits.
The subalterns went easy, as was only natural
With a terror like Money driving the machine,
Till finally two Welshmen, butties from the Rhondda,
Bayoneted their bugbear in a field-canteen.
Well, we couldn't blame the officers, they relied on Money;
We couldn't blame the pitboys, their courage was grand;
Or, least of all, blame Money, an old stiff surviving
In a New (bloody) Army he couldn't understand.

3. DEFINITIONS
Battalion - A large body of troops ready for battle
Line officer - a commissioned officer with combat units (they exercise general command
authority and are involved in actual fighting)
Arras – A town in Northern France (After Arras, meaning the Battle of Arras)
Sergeant Major - A warrant officer in the British army (two ranks below the Colonel but one
rank above the Captain)
Swaddies – Soldiers
Subaltern - An officer in the British army below the rank of captain (junior officers)
Pitboys - A cause of obsessive fear, irritation, or loathing (referring to Sgt Major Money)
Stiff – dead body

4. CONTEXT
This poem is about two ‘Welshmen’ (soldiers) who bayoneted their superior officer as
he was too hard on them. The speaker refers to the battalion of company ‘B’ who had
not a single line-officer left in the ranks after the Battle of Arras. Also, the senior
commanding officers were either drunk or couldn’t do things right, i.e. a ‘dud’. The
senior most officer who had some experience left was Sergeant Major Money (despite
being two ranks below a Colonel, he was more sane thus more able to command).
Sergeant Major Money was very strict and so harsh with his common soldiers that one
even committed suicide. The Colonel was useless as he noticed petty things such as the
fact that the soldiers looked good in their uniforms, or ‘kits’. The subalterns went easy
on the soldiers but then finally two soldiers who had enough of the Sergeant Major had
stabbed him. The point is that the senior officers were all inexperienced yet had to
submit to him so they weren’t to blame. The regular soldiers (‘pitboys’) couldn’t be
blamed because they fought bravely in battle. And the Sgt Major couldn’t be blamed for
his own death because he was simply doing what he thought was best and for him,
discipline regulations were a defence against the war – he may have been strict but you
could say that it was for a good cause.

5. LANGUAGE
The use of words
The title
Punctuation
Imagery

6. STRUCTURE
Rhyme scheme
Stanzas