Essay on War Poetry

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).

Comparing War Poems Died of Wounds and Suicide in the Trenches are two poems, which I will be comparing the similarities and differences, which were written by the same author. Both these poems were written by a person called Siegfried Sasson, who wrote most of his poems during the World War One, which outlined how bad the war was to those at home after suffering from being Shell Shocked. I will be comparing the language it uses, ideas it contains and the way it is structured between both poems, which Siegfried Sasson uses to demonstrate that war is evil, and should be stopped. The theme in Died of Wounds is that soldiers become shell-shocked and go insane.

The Universal Soldier is less of a man or human and more so the idea of every soldier combined as well as the perspective war personified. Throughout the song, the Universal Soldier is referred to as “him” and the songs depict what he is and what he does. The lines 1 and 4 are both representative of the height and age parameters for soldiers in 1961, which supports the idea that he represents all soldiers in war. The lines 22-24 depict him as the armies both Hitler and Caesar have; without both of their armies, they could not have accomplished what they did.

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

A third way in which the poets present ideas of patriotism in their poems is through the different references of the legacy that the soldiers carry. This is presented by Tennyson through his last stanza, which states ‘When can their glory

In the second stanza the distinctive experience of power is present. The use of the technique of imagery and emotive words “to pluck them from the shallows and bury them in burrows’ tells us that the soldiers were strong, loyal and had enough power within a degree to assist fellow soldiers. The use of personification to create sound “sob and clubbing of the gunfire” This leads the audience to understand what the soldiers were up against without even directly saying it. The imagery visually shows the scene in their

The literary device of tone is key to the meaning of this poem. From tone we can tell that Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was speaking in reverence and awe of the soldiers. This can be seen all throughout the poem, but most notably in stanza four. “...Sabring the gunners there…”, “...Plunged in the battery-smoke, Right through the line they broke...”, and “Cossack and Russian , Reel'd from the sabre stroke , Shatter'd and sundered.”; These examples show the tone by providing

Disparity of power in society is often created in the chaos of wars, in which it leads to abuse in power and loss of identity in individuals. Through the anti-war poem Homecoming by Dawe, responders have discovered and gained an insight on the power of war, which has impacted and led to the degradation of the ‘homecoming’ soldiers in ‘they’re…them’, as an anaphora illustrates the bitter attitude of the persona, merging and exhibiting Dawe’s dismissive perspective of war. The dominance of conflicts has impacted on the soldiers the most as it is denoted in the free verse lines, reflecting the unstructured senseless tragedy of war that stimulated their powerlessness. On the same hand, Dawe continues with his critical view of militarism in confronting

In the poem Charge of the Light Brigade Alfred Lord Tennyson utilizes repetition, personification, and diction to present how it is to be in battle and how it can impact people. In this poem Tennyson explains how the Battle of Balaclava

Poem one, which is called “Ducle Et Decorum Est” and it’s written by Wilfred Owen. This poem is about a soldier who is vividly describing his journey as a soldier in World War I and all of the horrendous events that he recalls. The second poem is called “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” is written by Alfred Tennyson. Tennyson is writing about 600 soldiers riding into the battle of death, but he was not a soldier in World War I. Due to the authors lack of experience in dealing with war, we are going to see a lot of different opinions and views on the topics when we compare the two poems.

Just by reading the title, we know that this poem is about World War II. The first stanza talks about high school kids “training for war.” Hall is comparing a school sport to fighting in the war which, to me, is a bit of an exaggeration. You are not very likely to get badly hurt playing a sport and, if you do, you can usually come back from it fairly well. In war, it is extremely easy to become injured, and most war injuries can cause you to lose your life. We see an example of this in Stanza II when Dom dies in battle. During WWII, the military drafted young men to fight in the war. Dom was just a kid, sent off to fight in the war, and died not even a year after being one of the high schoolers playing sports. His life had barely started before

but says that in that case it is better that there will only be a

It is seen that the photographer’s feelings are brought out in two contrasting situations, at home and while at warfront. The poet continues to describe the sufferings of the photographer when his mental state is compared as he is travelling between the two contrasting worlds – one the warfront which is full of destruction and chaos and the other is ‘Rural England,’ probably countryside that is peaceful and serene. He compares the pain of war to simple pain of changing weather back at home in England. There being nothing worse then the harsh weather that the children have to face as against the mines that explode on the running feet of the children affected by war. This only tells us that the photographer longs peace and he is deeply moved by the affected children. His prolonged thoughts are presented with great effect by the use of enjambment in this line and this adds to the effect of continuity of thoughts.

It is evident from looking at World War One (WW1) literature from the beginning, end and after the war that WW1 literature isn’t resolutely anti-war. However, the impression modern readers get from the most memorable pieces of WW1 literature is that of anti-war messages and graphic descriptions of the conditions the soldiers were in.

How is the theme of war portrayed through imagery in the poems Lament by Gillian Clarke and War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy?