Suspense In War

"The Artillery Man’s Vision” begins by introducing both the setting and an unknown Confederate or Union soldier. The opening line “While my wife at my side lies slumbering, and the wars are over long, / And my head on the pillow rests at home, and the vacant midnight passes” (1-2) establishes the poem’s time and location. Furthermore, both selections contribute to the overall tone and message, evident as the poem takes place after the war, yet the memories still seem to haunt the unnamed

In this free-verse war poem, the idea of 'journey' extends itself to cover both the physical and emotional aspects of the subject matter of the poem. Repetition and word

In the middle of the poem, the speaker arrives at the number of casualties from the war. When he reads this number he can’t believe that he is still alive. As he reads down the names he uses the visual imagery and simile to describe how he expected to find his own name in “letters like smoke” (line 16). This helps the reader understand how lucky the speaker felt about somehow escaping the war still alive. As he goes

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 soldiers who had attended the war were shown to have died brutally, like “cattle”, yet when reaching the home front, it is seen that they are laid to rest in a much more civil and dignified manner. The concept of this can be seen as an extended metaphor throughout the entire poem, with the battle front seen as a world filled with violence, fear and destruction, where as the home front is perceived as a place marked by order and ritual, a civilized world. The second sonnet opens with “What candles may be held to speed them all?”, invoking a more softer and compassionate tone towards the audience, more specifically through Owen’s use of a rhetorical question. It captures the readers’ attention, engaging them to feel empathetic and notice the shift of energy from anger and bitterness to a sadder and more somber tone. Owen’s use of descriptive language, as simple as it seems, such as ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ provokes the audience to view the horrors of the war as if they had been placed onto children, because in reality the ‘men; who had signed themselves into war to fight in glory for their country had really only just been boys themselves.

In the first part of the poem the writer shows the difficulty he is having with taking a human life. In the second stanza he says “Making night work for us the starlight scope bringing men into killing range. This dark tone helps to emphasize the struggle the author is feeling as a soldier in war. Also he shows his emotions directly. In stanza 3 he says “The river under Vi Bridge takes the heart away”. This quote shows the feeling that the author gets

The poem starts with similar word choices as ‘The Soldier’ but written in the perspective of the mother. The mother tells his son that when he dies he will be in a place of ‘quietness’ and free from the ‘loss and bloodshed’. This reinforces the fact that the battlefield was full of horrors and death. The poem then moves onto how ‘men may rest themselves and dream of nought’ explaining that the soldiers do not have to fear for their lives after their death. This illustrates how they feared for their lives and had negative connotations.

Tennyson uses aural imagery such and alliteration to express the sounds of battle, for example "shot and shell" reflect the sounds of the bullets fired at the brigade from every direction, providing with highly effective sound effects to the poem. Tennyson also uses a lot of repetition and anaphora in the poem, intended to communicate the relentlessness of the charge, and of the dangers faced by the soldiers. The quotation "Cannon to the right of them, Cannon to the left of them, Cannon in front of them" presents the dangers as being unavoidable, with death inevitable. Furthermore, by using the biblical connotation of the "Valley of Death"- the central imagery of the poem - he emphasises how important this battle was, elevating the soldiers of the Light Brigade to heroes. Furthermore, Tennyson uses a rhetorical question at the beginning of the final stanza: "When can their glory fade?" to emphasise and conclude the point he was making in the five previous stanzas: their glory should not fade, as their sacrifice is symbolic of all those who sacrifice their lives for the

The “sunlight” that rises above the river symbolizes new beginnings and freedom. But if Tim O’brien he would have to fight the never ending battle of his “love” for Martha, the [memories] of his friends and the “sorrow” and lust to return home. The author also uses so contradictions where he talks about the dawn spreading across the river and the mountains which sets up a hopefulness for Tim O’brien who longs to be home. Though he wants to go home he is afraid to; so he stays in the war and bares all the burden of war for the sake of his

A War Within Not every memory is happy. Not every memory beckons to be relived over and over again. Some are too painful and too confining. In Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem “Facing It,” the narrator is faced with just that--a difficult memory, still clinging to his mind. In the poem, when the narrator visits the Vietnam War Memorial, he is faced with a choice either to accept the memories as part of who he is and who he has become and move on, or to simply let the past consume him.

causes the poem to flow, and thus lightens up the dark and serious issue of war. The lines "But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place." are easy to read; however, their meaning is extremely

Use of free verse in this poem creates a lack of structure that appears to parallel the soldier’s own lack of structure and direction in his own life after he leaves the war. The poem begins with the image of a soldier's and his squadron raiding a farmhouse:

The second stanza speaks of how it so often slips our mind that war does not only affect the men who are in direct combat. The young women too, suffer greatly in silence. Though so removed from the grime and blood of the battlefield, one cannot imagine the excruciating pain of having to part with their loved ones, with the knowledge that 'the holy glimmers of goodbyes ' might as well be goodbye forever. Every moment of the day, they agonize over the terrifying thought that their loved one has been shot or injured. There is no way of telling - and the guessing game is exhausting. There is no more joy or excitement in life as each 'slow dusk ' drags by, their only reason for existence condensed into a single purpose - receiving news from the battlefield. Often time, their agonizing wait ends in a heartbreaking death. This is signified from the line 'the drawing down of blinds '.

“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

Browning employs imagery into the poem, which emphasizes the tone of motivation. The speaker asserts that he never turned his back on his people as he “marched breast forward.” In this line, Browning points out that this poem is in fact, about a soldier. In addition,