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War poetry as a subject
War poetry throughout ww1
War poetry as a subject
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I have studied poems of World War II. I found that the poems fell into
two categories, Recruiting Poems and Reality Poems.
World War II Poetry
I have studied poems of World War II. I found that the poems fell into
two categories, Recruiting Poems and Reality Poems. Recruiting poems
were those which were written by poets who have never encountered war
but were paid to convince the reader, usually in their twenties, to
sign up with the army. Reality poems tragic and effective story of
what war was really like. They were written after war by a person who
has suffered the consequences of the battleground.
Dulce Et Decorum Est, a reality poem written by Wilfred Owen describes
the struggle of a group of people who have to fight through the
extraordinary events of war day in day out. Wilfred Owen frequently
uses highly emotive language throughout the poem for example
"haunting", "limped" and "guttering, choking, drowning". These help
the reader imagine the terrible pain the soldiers suffered. Owen uses
rhetorical devices such as "you too could pace behind the wagon that
we flung him in"
The title, in English means It Is Sweet And Honourable To Die For Ones
Country. Which at first suggests that the poem represents the army in
a good way. However this is far from the truth. In a way I think that
Owen was mocking the saying but I don't think he was mocking the army
as a whole.
Owen says "Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs" which
means the soldiers are so tired that even when the flares go off
behind them they don't have the energy to turn around to see them. He
also says "Drunk with fatigue" which is saying that the soldiers are
so tired that it is as though they are drunk. Owen says these to
ethicise the tiredness of the soldiers.
The pace changes in the second stanza. The soldiers are woken by a gas
attack. This changes the mood that Owen has set in the opening stanza.
The soldiers are now woken by the fact that their lives are in extreme
danger and they now have to be fully aware of all their surroundings,
which will be difficult because of their tiredness. "Dim through the
misty panes and thick green light, as under a green sea, I saw him
drowning" The green light is the view through the soldier's gas masks.
This is a simile saying that the man is drowning in a green sea. But
really he is drowning in a sea of toxic blood.
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.
Many soldiers who come back from the war need to express how they feel. Many do it in the way of writing. Many soldiers die in war, but the ones who come back are just as “dead.” Many cadets come back with shell shock, amputated arms and legs, and sometimes even their friends aren’t there with them. So during World War I, there was a burst of new art and writings come from the soldiers. Many express in the way of books, poems, short stories and art itself. Most soldiers are just trying to escape. A lot of these soldiers are trying to show what war is really like, and people respond. They finally might think war might not be the answer. This is why writers use imagery, irony and structure to protest war.
Using references and quotes from three wartime poems I will explain what they tell us about wartime life and the thoughts and feelings of civilians and soldiers. I will also clarify how the poets communicate emotional and moving responses to the disturbing war. The three poems that will be analysed are: · Route March Rest - by Vernon Scannell, · Night Raid - by Desmond Hawkins, · The Battle - by Louis Simpson. I have selected these poems because they contain both similarity and contrast. These aspects are important in order to produce a high-quality essay as they provide a more balanced view of the poems.
...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.
There are only two types of people in a time of war and crisis, those who survive and those who die. Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, shows how Elie, himself, faces difficult problems and struggles to survive World War II. Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, tells a story about a young soldier thinking of himself before others during World War I. The poem “Mary Hamilton” shows how a mother killed her child
are not free in service, you do what you are told and this is the same
Understanding the effects of war and the appalling experiences our soldiers have to endure while fighting for their country facilitates communicating effectively about literature and its function in the context of American and world history and culture (SLO2). The purpose of imagery is to help get the poet’s message across in a language that is strong and vivid.
I am going to compare and contrast the two poems ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘War Photographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy. They both give a view of war. Owen gives first hand experiences he witnessed whilst fighting in World War One and where he unfortunately died one week before the war came to an end. Carol Ann Duffy may be writing about the feelings of her personal friends who were war photographers, showing some of the horrors they witnessed.
A poem I have recently read is “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen. The main point Wilfred Owen tries to convey in this poem is the sheer horror of war. Owen uses many techniques to show his feelings, some of which I’ll be exploring. Wilfred Owen was a tired soldier on the front line during World War I. In the first stanza of Dulce Et Decorum Est he describes the men and the condition they are in and through his language shows that the soldiers deplore the conditions.
Owen’s poem uses symbolism to bring home the harsh reality of war the speaker has experienced and forces the reader to think about the reality presented in romanticized poetry that treats war gently. He utilizes language that imparts the speakers experiences, as well as what he, his companions, and the dying man feels. People really die and suffer and live through nightmares during a war; Owen forcefully demonstrates this in “Dulce et Decorum Est”. He examines the horrific quality of World War I and transports the reader into the intense imagery of the emotion and experience of the speaker.
I am going to compare the two poems “Dulce et decorum est” by Wilfred Owen and “Channel Firing” by Thomas Hardy. The poem by Hardy talks about the great German guns “Big Berthas” which fired across the channel at the nearest coastal villages, and how the noise of these guns is so terrific that it wakes the dead in their graves. “Dulce et decorum est” is a poem about a group of tired, worn out soldiers who are making their way back from the front line. They come under a gas attack and Owen describes to us the scene which is presented to him of a fellow soldier and companion “drowning” in his own mucus. Both poems portray a sense of helplessness to this exposure to the war!
This type of writing interests me because it was used as a tool to open people’s eyes to the brutality of war. In a way it protested and spoke up against this injustice and most importantly gave a voice to the people who became the biggest victims of war – the soldiers themselves.
George Orwell once wrote “If the war didn’t happen to kill you, it was bound to start you thinking.” He is referring to the impact which World War One had on the United States of America. It affected both those fighting and the home front, including wives and children of war soldiers. The brutality of the war opened an eye for the Americans, which influenced an expression of the horrifying thoughts brought on by the war through the use of literature. Due to World War One, Journalism became more popular, Romanticism moved to the Realism movement, and poetry moved from being metaphorical to being straightforward.
He may have used this technique to make war seem if it had made men
in his poems. There is also the view that war has turned into a cycle,