They are “awkwardly hunched over with bombs, guns, shovels and combat equipment”. The men “jostle” to meet the “bristling fire”. “Lines of gray, muttering faces, masked by fear” emerge from the trenches. This scene would be familiar to many readers. Then the final lines make Sassoon's own interpretation of the war devastatingly clear. He calls Hope on stage, “flooding” in the mud. The very last words of the poem are “O Jesus, make it stop!” » There is no ambiguity as to the effect Sassoon intended to have on the reader with these words. He says the war is now unnecessary, has gone on too long and is causing senseless deaths through brutal means. Hope is, literally, not a factor in Sassoon's vision of the future.