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In John Keats's 'Vlamertinghe : Passing The U. '.'

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In one of these poems, “Vlamertinghe: Passing the Chateau,” Blunden describes recalls a quote from “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats while ostensibly looking over a plane of flowers (POTTER 180). Blunden that describes that he and his fellow soldiers are “coming to the sacrifice,” and questions whether if those “who live with death and lice” may have flowers (Blunden 208). The contrast between Blunden’s beautiful description of the “floweriest place That earth allows” and the macabre concept of decay and parasitic insects creates a sense of dissonance. Those two images do not belong together, and most would not think to place them together either. However, Blunden, with all of the emotional and mental trauma that he has been put through, groups the two separate concepts together anyways to show that for a soldier, the appreciation of life and the fear of death are intertwined. The decision to have contrasting language is indicative of his form of irony when writing verse. The contradictions throughout the poem “may signal something that acts on his imagination” (POTTER 181). For Blunden, peace is not often found within his own mind, and when it is found, it does not last for long. This form of irony that is present in his verse can also be attributed to his prose work. In the memoir, Blunden details emotions and experiences that are almost completely nonsensical due to the magnitude of how much they contradict each other. However, these contradictions are a integral

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