How Poetry of the First World War Changed

Characters of War At the news of World War I breaking out, Siegfried Sassoon quickly enrolled in regimental training. Yet most people don't recognize him for his war achievements. Today he is recognized as one of the most famous war poets of the era. World War I was a war of attrition and cost thousands of humans their loved ones, limbs, or lives. Siegfried writes two poems pertaining to these matters; "The One-Legged Man" and "The Hero", both of which show a part of war civilians can relate to, show the morale amongst the soldiers, and carry a common theme of selfishness and one's dignity or lack there of.

It is interesting when discussing WW1 poetry to examine how attitudes to war at the time may have influenced the poets. Before WW1 war was generally viewed as a positive thing. Many young men followed a career in the army and saw it as something of an adventure. The horrors of WW1 changed many people’s attitudes to war, the mechanisation of warfare led to millions of casualties and this resulted into a general realisation that war wasn’t a glorious adventure. Many soldiers wrote powerful poems about the reality of war as they wanted the truth to be known.

He started to write poems and send them with his letters to his mother some of his first were: Anthem for Doomed Youth and Dulce Et Decorum Est. In March 1918 Owen went back on active duty and was transferred to the front line and during the attack on the Fonsome line he had to take control of the company because the ... ... middle of paper ... ...o war and going out to fight. It was these people that Siegfried thought were prolonging the war for longer than was necessary. In the 'Memorial Tablet' Sassoon writes of how one particular boy or young man was pushed into going to war by a 'squire' this boy or young man was killed by a shell 'and then a shell Burst slick upon the duck-boards: so I fell'. At a memorial service for the dead the squire who sits 'in his pew' and 'he gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare', is thinking of what he has done.

JESSIE POPE WILFRED OWEN WHO’S FOR THE DULCE ET DECORUM EST. GAME? THE CALL DISABLED These poems were written about (and at the same time as), World War I, between 1914 to 1918. In these barbaric four years->killing spree 7 million men and leaving 17 million men injured, (physically-the war tactics resorted to the tortures of gas attacks, gun-shot wound, shell shock, starvation and exposure, to name a few...), the rest were scarred by memories never fading. World war one devastated lives and souls, time and space.

His poems are suffused with the horror of battle and are a passionate expression of outrage at the horror and pity for the young soldiers sacrificed in it. Owen was awarded the military cross for serving in the war with distinction. He died one year after returning to battle and one week before the war ended in 1918. I believe that Owen wrote these poems because he wanted to tell people about the horrible things he has seen and been through. Also I believe he wrote them to deliver the truth to the people at home and to the people who were thinking of going to war because it was glorious.

I admire how Jem loved his father so much, and wanted to follow him to the war. He didn’t want to only go into the war for the glory like his friend Hank, but he believed that the slaves should be set free. His family had their share of slaves, but in the book they were treated well. The details of Jem’s daily life as a soldier are interwoven with vivid depictions of actual battles and historical figures in this taut, fast-paced story. And that’s what I like about this book.

The attitude across the country seemed to be one of all the young men going off to fight the enemy, and all of them coming home heroes. There was an attitude that war was a patriotic sacrifice and almost a passage that young men should go through, to come out as civilised, and experienced, human beings. The poets writing at the time, such as Julian Grenfell wrote of the warmth of comradeship and left alone the possibility of actually dying over there. The poems are so airy and warm, speaking of the spring and new beginnings, and even of death being an ultimate honour. In "Into Battle" Grenfell uses romantic language, opening the first stanza with: "The naked earth is warm with spring," is hardly the way to describe a war.

Young men were eager to join the armed forces, as they thought the glory and heroism of war would be enjoyable. Fighting in France was expected to be an exciting adventure. Thousands of men joined so they would have the honor of serving their Queen and country. Underage age boys lied about their age in order to join, which showed that the English people thought the war would be won and over quickly. Many patriotic poems and songs were written which encouraged the war effort even more.

How Wilfred Owen Presents the Horror of War in Dulce et Decorum est In the First World War people wanted the young men to go to war, but no-one really knew about conditions of the fighting in the war. Wilfred Owen was one of the people who wanted to tell the public what war was really was like. He tried to do that through his poetry. One of his poems "Dulce et decorum est" shows the horror of war very well. We know that Wilfred Owen really does know what he's talking about as he served through most of the war and died shortly before the armistice.

When war first broke out in 1914 the general attitude towards it was patriotism. Many young men grabbed the chance to fight for their country and show the women their braveness, they thought they would come back heroes, however they did not know what happened beyond the cheerful and brave faces seen in the news papers and the blissful time the soldiers had in their letters home. This made many more men go to war. Things gradually changed, death, disease, mud, it had suddenly hit that to fight for your country was not such an honour. Soldiers firstly began to write poetry because poetry was the most important mode of expression for those who were shocked and disillusioned by the realities of the First World War.