Post WWI Poetry Essay
The poems that I will compare are Rupert Brooke – The Soldier,
Seigfried Sassoon – ‘They’, and How Sleep the Brave – William Collins.
Rupert Brooke - The Soldier
The first few words that Brooke uses are ‘If I should die,’ He uses if
as a possibility of death. He uses this because he thinks death is a
possibility not a definite answer to war. The forth word he uses
connects the Sestet and Octave together because ‘think’ is used in
both stanza. At the end of the first line he says ‘me’. This means
that he is a ‘patriotic soldier who has done his duty for his
country’. ‘That there’s some corner of a foreign field’. This means
where every he falls during the war, no matter if it is in a shell
hole or on the edge of a river he will be able to die in a piece of
England. This shows even more patriotism towards the war and his
fellow soldiers. The line ‘in that rich earth a richer dust
concealed’, means that the soldier’s ashes are held in the earth. They
have been called ‘richer dust’ because the ashes of the people are the
ashes of people who have dies for their country and their fellow
countrymen. This also means that his body fertilizes the patriotism
and honour of England’s people. ‘A dust whom England bore, shaped,
made aware’, means that the man who died was raised by England and
educated. This personifies England as a mother nurturing a small
child. The soldier’s body is said to be owned by England in the line,
‘A body of England’s’. In the poem the word ‘blest’ is used some this
may have some religious significance. The lines 5 – 8 are describing
the soldiers ‘Englishness’. It is patriotism at its most extreme.
In the second stanza, the word ‘think’ arises again, joining the
sestet and octave. ‘All evil shed away’, means that the person who has
sacrificed their body for their country cannot sin any more because
they are dead. This may also mean that they may have been forgiven for
killing the enemy to protect their country and its rights of freedom.
‘A pulse in the eternal mind’ has a spiritual or religious meaning. It
could mean that all of the people, who knew him in the war and his
family, still remember him and will do forever. ‘Gives somewhere back
the thoughts by England given’, continues the patriotism and
emphasizes his sacrifice for England. The last three lines describe
the ‘Good of England’. The last line ‘In hearts at peace, under an
that their power was being taken away slowly he gave them positions in the army
pathway he went through water, and which the water gods would try to kill him.
One of the worst things about war is the severity of carnage that it bestows upon mankind. Men are killed by the millions in the worst ways imaginable. Bodies are blown apart, limbs are cracked and torn and flesh is melted away from the bone. Dying eyes watch as internal organs are spilled of empty cavities, naked torso are hung in trees and men are forced to run on stumps when their feet are blown off. Along with the horrific deaths that accompany war, the injuries often outnumber dead men. As Paul Baumer witnessed in the hospital, the injuries were terrifying and often led to death. His turmoil is expressed in the lines, “Day after day goes by with pain and fear, groans and death gurgles. Even the death room I no use anymore; it is too small.” The men who make it through the war take with them mental and physical scarification from their experiences.
are not free in service, you do what you are told and this is the same
a seaborne death soft as mist will take him down into the House of Death,
himself played a role in it. He was able to tell us first hand about
The next line expresses the way in which he has no grave stone, just a
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He may have used this technique to make war seem if it had made men
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