War Poetry A popular theme for poets in the last century was war. Many famous poems were written about the two world wars, as well as the Korean and Vietnam wars. This essay will consider six poems with a war theme, three by Wilfred Owen and three by Australian poets. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘The Send Off’ and ‘Insensibility (1)’ were written by Owen during the first world war to express his anti-war attitude. ‘Beach Burial’ by Kenneth Slessor, ‘Homecoming’ by Bruce Dawe and ‘Letter XV’ by Bruce Beaver are famous Australian poems about war. The poems have many similarities, but also have their differences. The subject matter of the poems is obviously generally the same. Most are about soldiers dying/dead because of a war. ‘Beach Burial’ is specifically about the WW2 battle at El Alamein, and ‘Homecoming’ is concerned with the effect of the Vietnam War, but the rest are about war in general. The purpose of the poems is to convey the poets’ own beliefs against war, for example Wilfred Owen was an avid anti-war activist, despite - or maybe because of - the fact that he fought in WW1. The emotion portrayed is mostly depressive, somber and bitter. ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ seems slightly accusatory; this is because the poet asks questions of the reader, almost daring the reader to disagree. ‘Letter XV’ emits a confused mood, as if the poet doesn’t understand why war exists. All the poems could probably be described as elegies, considering they are all laments for the...
Route March Rest by Vernon Scannell, Night Raid by Desmond Hawkins, The Battle by Louis Simpson - How do the poets communicate emotional or moving responses to war? What do these poems tell us about wartime life and the thoughts and feelings of civilians and soldiers? How do the poets communicate emotional or moving responses to war? The following essay will try to answer the question above.
...ntation in 20th century war poetry undoubtedly shapes its type and purpose, be it for nationalistic propaganda or to prompt a global paradigm shift, the purpose can be seen to stem largely from the author’s involvement in combat or war life. Authors such as Owen Seaman, who have no first hand experience of the content of their poems, create patriotic propaganda in an attempt to keep young men enlisting, and others such as Rupert Brooke who exemplify blind optimism and nationalistic intentions in a romanticised view of what it would be to die.
With further experiences, new insights may lead to furthering our thoughts on a specific poem we are writing. A poem comes out when the world is ready for it. Dulce ET Decorum Est is a great example of this thought. This poem was directed at a specific individual to expose the horror of war, and prove that it is not sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. The poet spends a lot of his time reflecting on the haunting image of a soldier dying from poisonous gas. In fact, it seems the poet can’t forget the image of this soldier gasping for breath. The speaker of this poem states this in line 15 through 16 “In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” The poet must’ve felt it necessary to release his thoughts on this dying man to the world in order to expose the world to the horror of war. This was around the time when television footage of wars did not occur. The kids signing up or being drafted to be soldiers had no idea that war would be this ugly. In fact, everyone seemed to be telling them Dulcem Et Decorum Est. As a result, I realized that the world was ready and needed this
How Wilfred Owen Uses Language and Imagery in His Poetry to Communicate his Attitudes of War
Owen expresses his anger in a set of contrasts between a real funeral and the lack of a funeral for these young men,. For example, instead of a service with a choir. they only have ‘the shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells’. As you would expect, the tone and mood of both poems is deeply serious. as Owen has a strong message in both of them.
Poetry has been used for centuries as a means to explore emotions and complex ideas through language, though individuals express similar ideas in wholly different forms. One such idea that has been explored through poetry in numerous ways is that of war and the associated loss, grief, and suffering. Two noted Australian poets shown to have accomplished this are Kenneth Slessor with his work ‘Beach Burial’ and John Schumann’s ‘I Was Only Nineteen’. Both of these works examine the complexities of conflict, but with somewhat different attitudes.
I will discuss the similarities by which these poems explore themes of death and violence through the language, structure and imagery used. In some of the poems I will explore the characters’ motivation for targeting their anger and need to kill towards individuals they know personally whereas others take out their frustration on innocent strangers. On the other hand, the remaining poems I will consider view death in a completely different way by exploring the raw emotions that come with losing a loved one.
Ultimately, we have two poems which can be compared on the grounds of their subject, but are poles apart regarding their message. The structure of these poems is not what would be typically expected from a war poem, but are structured on the basis of these typical structures in order to create some sense of familiarity. Brooke’s poem expands on this familiarity while Owen attempts to deliberately sabotage it. In regards to content, Brooke shows throughout his perception of the nobility of dying for one’s country, whilst Owen uses all of his poetic techniques to show the opposite.
Considered the leading English poet of the First World War, Owen is remembered for realistic poems depicting the horrors of war, which were inspired by his experiences at the Western Front in 1916 and 1917. Owen considered the true subject of his poems to be "the pity of war," and attempted to present the true horror and realities of battle and its effects on the human spirit. His unique voice, which is less passionate and idealistic than those of other war poets, is complemented by his unusual and experimental style of writing. He is recognized as the first English poet to successfully use pararhyme, in which the rhyme is made through altered vowel sounds. Owen’s distinct way of both writing and reading poems led to influence other poets in the 1920s and 1930s.
Although war is often seen as a waste of many lives, poets frequently focus on its effect on individuals. Choose two poems of this kind and show how the poets used individual situations to illustrate the impact of war.
The speaker started the poem by desiring the privilege of death through the use of similes, metaphors, and several other forms of language. As the events progress, the speaker gradually changes their mind because of the many complications that death evokes. The speaker is discontent because of human nature; the searching for something better, although there is none. The use of language throughout this poem emphasized these emotions, and allowed the reader the opportunity to understand what the speaker felt.
I think the meaning of the poem is that each soldier will not be remembered because they are one of so many that did not have a funeral or a body; they would have no grave stone and will just be forgotten. Wilfred uses his beliefs in war in both of the poems that I have studied, as he saw death, destruction, and pain and wanted people to be more aware of the war and hopefully to stop it from happening again. Anthem For Doomed Youth uses the form of a sonnet to explain a message that is slow and meaningful as you would imagine a funeral march.
This allows for a smooth transition in his description of the ritual that marks a soldier’s death. To draw attention to the tears “in their eyes”, which could be in the eyes of the dead soldier or of their brothers at war, they are connected to the “glimmer of good-byes”, to represent the quick mourning for the soldiers (10-11). The connection here is furthered with the use of enjambment at the end of the tenth line; with no grammatical separation, the thought smoothly transitions from one line to the other. On the other hand, Keats uses the exact Shakespearean rhyme In the sonnets “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be”, by John Keats, and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, by Wilfred Owen, the poets’ use of formal elements create distinctions to mark the speakers’ thoughts and build upon the situation.
The thing about war is that it's all filled with pain and heartbreak, halfly because you know somebody that’s going to war and you will never know if you will ever see them again. Future generations can learn about the pain soldiers had gone through and they will learn about the history behind war, they will find out that being in war isn't a walk in the park and that being in the military is a very serious job all by reading about war in history books. The three poems; An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, The Man he Killed, and The soldier are all told in a Soldier's point of view in the war and that’s something they all have in common. People can learn lessons through reading this essay about the war and what these poems give off. The poem The soldier, by Rupert Brooke, teaches readers that pride in one’s country is a powerful thing.
In this comparative piece on these two anti-war sonnets, from World War One and the Battle of Vinegar Hill, I will attempt to explain how each writer displays the particular event in their poetry. Both these poems have irregular rhyme schemes and around 10 syllables on each line. The aim of these poems is to remind us to respect those men who lost their lives in battle, and how disgraceful war really is. In Anthem for Doomed Youth, Owen splits his sonnet into two stanzas, an octet and a sestet. The octet describes the imagery of the battlefield and the trenches on the front line.