How Poetry Can And Can Not Say Many Things

The Soldier is one of numerous poems written at the beginning of war (before ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’) to attract naive young men who believed enrolling in war would be an exciting adventure allowing them to travel the world. Brooke welcomes death in his sonnet and expresses that he feels privileged to have been raised in England, believing it was a blessing.

Wilfred Owens poem “Dulce et Decorum est” and Bruce Dawe’s poem “Homecoming” are poems from different wars, however both highlight the indignity of war. Owen’s poem is broken up into three sections, where he expresses the torture soldiers suffer

Literature and poetry are a reflection of society. The words are reflected in numerous feelings that we can almost touch and can be deeply felt in its reach. Most poets expressed their perception and emotion through their writings. Unfortunately the art and poetry describes one of the worst things that human can do to one another. The legalized murder called "war." Hence, this type of self-reflection called "poetry" has help create new fundamental ideas and values towards our society. In this essay, I will discuss the issue of the "War Poetry" during the "Great War" along with comparing and contrasting two talented renowned poets; Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) and Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967).

For Brooke, war was a different experience. It was not that he did not recognize death and trauma, but it was that he perceived it in a different light. Brooke thought of dying for one’s country as honorable, admirable, and something of what a hero would do. Similar to a lot of what we see in modern pro-war propaganda, these descriptions are attributed with anyone who is willing to take on the “good fight for freedom”. It is possible that Brooke’s poems are filled with the patriotic beliefs that they are, purely due to pro-war propaganda, as the influence it has on people is remarkable and

Wilfred Owen can be considered as one of the finest war poets of all times. His war poems, a collection of works composed between January 1917, when he was first sent to the Western Front, and November 1918, when he was killed in action, use a variety of poetic techniques to allow the reader to empathise with his world, situation, emotions and thoughts. The sonnet form, para-rhymes, ironic titles, voice, and various imagery used by Owen grasp the prominent central idea of the complete futility of war as well as explore underlying themes such as the massive waste of young lives, the horrors of war, the hopelessness of war and the loss of religion. These can be seen in the three poems, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and

World War One poets Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen both use poetry to examine their differing perspectives surrounding the idea of heroism in war. Brooke’s The Soldier depicts an idealistic, patriotic view towards fighting for his country, whereas Owen’s Dulce et Decorum est demonstrates a realistic view of the senseless horrors of war. Both poets utilise similar poetic techniques of imagery and sound devices to express their contradictory views of the atrocious events of the greatest war that the world had ever seen at that time.

Thousands of young Europeans went to serve their country (draft) during the first world war and were met with death and destruction. In addition to having to witness comrades and friends being killed, they had to kill others which will undoubtedly change someone. It takes away your innocence to have to do and see things such as this. For those that survived these images haunted them for the rest of their lives changing their outlook on life and general disposition. Which such a large percent of the population having had such damaging effects it takes a toll on the entirety of Europe. Siegfried Sassoon, a British poet who fought during WWI, recounts his experience and the damaging effects of war. In Sassoon’s Suicide in the Trenches he writes about the effects of the war on the soldiers and the disillusionment people at home had about war. The first stanza of the poem has as cheerful tone. Sassoon writes “I knew a simple soldier boy,” choosing to use the word “boy” instead of man to put an emphasis on how young and youthful these soldiers were. There is a sharp change of tone between the first and second stanza in which Sassoon talks of the hardships of the trenches and has a an emphasis on winter. The boy who was spoken about in the first stanza as

The poem “Soldier” is Brooke’s views on the possible occurrence of his own death in the field and what he feels that foreign country would gain from his death. When viewing his own death Brooke only looks at the thoughts and ways England has provided him with in the course of his life. Towards the end of the poem as if looking at the end of his life he mentions that he feels no anger or feelings of evil or hate toward the enemy or anything else but instead recollects all the wonderful things about his country.

Throughout his body of work, Wilfred Owen’s poetry’s interesting ideas about loss. Owen presents a scathing critique of the Government’s propagandist representation of war as an honorable means through which glory and accolades are achieved, in tum critizing the way in which it entices young men directly into the battlefield and their inevitable deaths. His poetry also rejects the heroic and noble representation of war, exploring the traumatic physical, emotional and psychological impacts on the soldiers who had committed the most atrocious acts in order to survive. Owen’s ‘Dulce Et Decorum Youth’, subverts the traditional perceptions of war and attacks those who reinforce it, revealing the debilitating and degrading experiences of innocent soldiers in war. Similarly, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, is an outrage at the loss of life of the soldiers. These poems, through powerful vivid imagery, maintain textual integrity and resonate with World War 1 and contemporary readers, both of whom have been embroiled in violent global conflict.

For thousands of years mankind has been obsessed with the subject of war, from the clash of swords to the bitter thunder of artillery mankind has brought upon itself an immense amount of suffering. Good evening teachers and students I am here today with the aim of convincing you on why Wilfred Owens poetry must not be ignored but instead explored to find the deeper meaning of his poems. The poetry of Wilfred Owen was different to that of other war poets of his time as it revealed the horrors and agony of the so-called Great War which were concealed by the Church and British Authorities for the purpose of deceiving the youth. The idea of romanticising war goes strongly against Wilfred Owens moral purpose, thus his Poetry is didactic and condemnatory. Throughout his short life he had first hand experience with the scourge of war. From this he aimed to debunk those romanticised notions of the glorification of war that were present at the time by challenging poets such as John Keats who glorified war. Owen effectively conveys the truth of war through his use of techniques such as imagery, ambiguity and many others in his poems of "Dulce Et Decorum EST" and Anthem For doomed youth.

Poems using strong poetic technique and devices are able to create a wide range of emotions from the readers. Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively uses these poetic techniques and devices to not only create unsettling images about war but to provide his opinion about war itself with the use of themes within his poem. The use of these themes explored Owen’s ideas on the futility of war and can be seen in the poems: Anthem for Doomed Youth, Futility and The Next War. The poems provide unsettling images and belief of war through the treatment of death, barbaric nature of war and the futility of war.

Throughout Wilfred Owen’s collection of poems, he unmasks the harsh tragedy of war through the events he experienced. His poems indulge and grasp readers to feel the pain of his words and develop some idea on the tragedy during the war. Tragedy was a common feature during the war, as innocent boys and men had their lives taken away from them in a gunshot. The sad truth of the war that most of the people who experienced and lived during the tragic time, still bare the horrifying images that still live with them now. Owen’s poems give the reader insight to this pain, and help unmask the tragedy of war.

“The Soldier” is a poem about a generic, yet ideal soldier, which is indicated by Rupert Brooke’s use of the word “The” instead of “A” when describing the soldier in the title. The usage of “I” and “me” in the poem suggests a first person point of view, which makes the poem more personal and realistic to the reader. This poem is a sonnet because the first stanza contains eight lines and the second stanza contains six. Throughout “The Soldier,” the repetition of “English” and “England” shows how important his homeland is to the soldier and his high level of patriotism. In line five, England is personified, and although England is not a living thing, the soldier sees his country as his creator and as a sort of mother figure. Brooke’s use of alliteration throughout the poem helps it flow; the use of caesura breaks up the lines. Perfect external rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter are used throughout the poem, which both give the poem flow and rhythm. The “dust” in lines four and five is a metaphor for the soldier’s life; England created him and he will become “dust concealed” when he dies and is buried. The first stanza of “The Soldier” uses various lines of imagery: “some corner of a foreign field… In that rich earth a richer dust concealed… flowers… Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.” These forms of imagery emphasize the soldier’s death and how his death will cleanse him of any wrongdoings he had done in his time on earth. The “rivers” and “suns” are personified as

During the modernist era, the rise of nationalism and global expansion exploded across the globe. Nationalist ideals began to take hold across Europe and tensions increased as each country attempt to showcase its own believed superiority. Citizens of each nation were identifying themselves as holding common beliefs and ideals supposedly inherent to their country of origin. Rupert Brooke’s poem The Soldier is an intriguing example of nationalism and identity from this time period. The poem’s narrator is a soldier of British descent who speaks of his possible death and his arrival in “English heaven”. His intense love and pride for his country cannot only be seen in the fact that his depiction of heaven is simply another version of England, but also in the first two couplets. He states, “If I should die, think only this of me: / That

Ever wondered the type of poet the war of WWI could make? War has always been deadly, cruel, harsh, and with the introduction of new weapons it was everything a soldier could fear times ten. Among all the chaos and deaths that followed during WWI there was one soldier/war poet, Siegfried Sassoon, who created poems that vividly portrayed his experiences of being a soldier in one of the world’s largest wars. Siegfried Sassoon’s poems gave people back home a clear picture of what was really going on and what conditions the soldiers had to live under during the years that the war lasted. Siegfried lived a life that was greatly affected by war, the deaths of people he cared for, and his strong passion for writing poetry. (Mixture of all sources)