Poetry Response to McCrae's 'In Flanders Fields'

The poem, “In Flanders Fields,” is impregnated with imagery. “This poem was literally born of fire and blood during the hottest phase of the second battle of Ypres.” John McCrae had just lost his very close

Often, personal experiences are what influence a poet’s writing. Since the 1600s and up until World War One, poets have been heavily impacted by the glorification of war, as well as the catastrophic losses the world has suffered from. Poets such as Richard Lovelace and Lord Tennyson glorified the sacrifices soldiers made for their countries and honored them. While poets like Mary Borden and Wilfred Owen expressed their outrage towards war because they have witnessed the brutality and wickedness of it. In the two poetry collections, diction is the main factor in establishing the tone and theme of each poem.

During the early 1900’s, there was many events taking place throughout the world. One of them actually being World War I. John McCrae and Wilfred Owens were both soldiers in that particular war. One could only imagine all that these men had experienced and gone through during those times. To help one better envision and understand what they went through, they both had actually written poems about their times in the military during World War I. One would think that since both these gentlemen had been in the same war, they would experience the same things and write about the same as well. And yes, both of their writings and poems have similarities in style. However, their exposure to the war and violence made their poems very different in many ways. Both of their techniques, mood, and tone throughout their writings contrasts vastly.

“In Flanders Fields,” by John McCrae, suggests that dying for one’s country is glorious, even posing as a call to arms. McCrae’s imagery and diction conveys the tone of his views. In the first stanza of this poem, the line “Between the crosses, row on row/scarce heard amid the guns below” implies that as these soldiers have perished, war is still running amidst. The author’s imagery to convey this to the resemblance of “scarce heard amid the guns below” to the war going on and they [soldiers] can hear the war, symbolically. “We are the Dead...felt dawn, saw sunset glow” he mainly uses symbolism to emphasize their significance in war, that to show they are dead but won’t let their heroic deaths be in vain.

War is a scandalous topic where peoples’ views differ as to what war is. Some people see it as pure evil and wicked while others think that it is brave and noble of what soldiers do. Looking at poems which had been written by people affected by war help show the messages which are portrayed. The two sets of poems which show different views of war as well as some similarities are “the Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, “To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars” by Richard Lovelace and “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, “The Song of the Mud” by Mary Borden. Both these poets use linguistic devices to convince the reader of their view of what the war is. Tennyson and Lovelace show how war is worthy

The poem was written to show that war is a waste of human life as the soldier knows he will die one day as well as the men around him, just some quicker than others. This can be evident in stanza four of the poem: “I know I’ll join them somewhere, one day.” The language used is more casual than formative, this is effective as it shows the personal feelings and thoughts of the soldier during the time

The poet Wilfred Owen was one of many poets who were against war. He reflected this idea of anti-war in his poems, one of his poems called “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, mirrors most aspects of war all put together in this short still deep poem. An example of that would be when the speaker stated,” What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?”(1) The speaker asks is there any sound that marks our soldier’s death other than the sounds of church bell’s which are mostly rung to represent somebody’s absence? Clearly, the speaker sets anger as the tone of the poem through this question to show that soldier’s death is unremarkable.. The speaker compares the soldiers to a “cattle” which illustrates that soldiers are treated more like animals with no feelings and also shows how they are killed indiscriminately in war. Finally the line ironically contains an iambic pentameter which is a natural rhythm for such dark, grim, dull subject. The two novels, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, and All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, both present a similar idea of how soldiers are killed out there in the front comprehensively and the dehumanization of war towards its soldiers. The first novel is set during the Civil War, and it focuses on the psychological aspects of one soldier named Henry Fleming and how his naive thoughts about war constantly change through the course of the novel. The second novel presents the life of a soldier named Paul Baumer and his

The poem is written to represent all soldiers, regardless of allegiance, and shows that in death we are all joined as one, ‘the sand joins them together'. It does not boast about victory but rather the irony that no matter their race or country they all end up ‘on the other front'. Again the lines 17 and 18 really emphasize that in death the countries the soldiers were fighting for are irrelevant. Although the poem has a worldview, an Australian perspective is brought out through the ‘sway and wander' and ‘waves and fades' recreation of the sea. Kenneth Slessor is presenting a less optimistic view of the war perspective in Australia, one that does not celebrate the call to

In war ,many terrible tragedies occur, leaving many people scarred and in grief and who can never forget the nightmare of war.This paper will discuss“ In, Flanders fields by John Mccrae’s,Dulce et Decorum EST by Wilfred Owen and I sing of Olaf glad and big by ee cummings.This paper will be discussing the different points of views that poets have about war and how it shapes our own opinion ,of it because none of us have experienced war firsthand and have only heard about the nightmare from those who have survived and lived to tell us their story.

b) I think this poem is protesting about the war and all its horrors, giving an account of the war, and warning against the glorification of

The problem about war is that, we fight and kill each other to fight for justice, but what’s the point? The soldiers are all one, especially when they are united by one common thing, death. Throughout the poem, the poet stresses that all soldiers are one when they die and lose their identity and are all joined together after death. It is evident in the line, “whether as enemies they fought, or fought with us, or neither; the sand joins them together.” The poet is trying to tell us that the soldiers that are buried under the sand have not only lost their identity, but were joined together by the

For example, the first stanza says “Who’s for the game, the biggest that’s played”. This phrase from the poem emphasizes how many people play the game of war. The second stanza mentions “Who’ll give his country a hand?”. This piece of information from the poem talks about who will do the things it takes to win this game of war. Finally, in the last stanza, the author says “Who would much rather come back with a crutch than lie low and be out of the fun?”. By saying this in the poem, the author made joining war sound adventurous and it sounds as if they are trying to make war sound appealing so that someone will

The poem, “In Flanders Fields” written by Canadian John McCrae remains one of the most important and memorable pieces of war

This first paragraph will be talking about the poem. So first off the poem was first made in 1920 and this was during ww1 or “The great war.” In the first three lines, it has a very peaceful, soft, and sweet tone to it. The second half has a very darker tone to it than the

The poet then presents a scene of patriotic relevance as he describes a scene of a regiment marching into battle with their “flag” and “Eagle with crest of red and gold” (17-18). When people think of flags, they think of patriotism and representing their country. Eagles also symbolize freedom but as readers can witness in the work, the poet makes it seem as if these men were created not to enjoy the gift of life for one moment by him saying “These men were born to drill and die” (19). This comes across to the reader as almost inhumane. Then by illustrating an image of a field of thousands of dead corpses makes any reader wonder why people even go to war. The whole fourth stanza paints a picture of living human being going into a battle with most, if not any, making it out alive. Like stated before, the speaker in the poem builds a case for those people that opposed to war even though the title of the poem might