Analysing War Poetry Essay Research Paper Comparing

Analysing War Poetry Essay, Research Paper Comparing and contrasting the poems we have read, show how they convey the thoughts of the poets and their reasons for writing the poems. Refer in detail to the poems, using quotations from the poems. There are five different poems to be looked at, all of varying style, and about different aspects of war, such as celebrations, mourning and reminisces. Also, they were written in different periods, i.e. The Soldier, which was written in 1914, before people were aware of how long and horrific the war was going to be. The poet, Rupert Brooke, was a soldier in the war, as were the other poets, but is writing early on so his manner tells me he almost expects not to die, and that the war will be over quickly. The way he says, If I should

die, tells me that dying, in an all out war, only remains a possibility to him, but a possibility he has prepared for, quite evidently, by writing such a poem. Rupert Brooke believes, that if ever he dies on foreign soil, that soil will become English soil, and that it will be a victory because a man, born and bred in England, has, in one form or another, claimed land for his country. That there s some corner of a foreign field That is forever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, He claims the land in the form of a richer dust the richer dust being his dead remains that will slowly decompose into the soil, making it English soil. Brooke is very sentimental about what his country has given him in his

lifetime, and this is shown throughout the poem, but especially here: A body of England s, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by the suns of home Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given.’ He perhaps sees that, in dying for his country, he is paying it back for all that it has given to him during the course of his life, described at the end of the poem. Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. It could also be said that he has called England her, out of affection, as sailors do for their boats. The style in which Rupert Brooke wrote is entirely different to how Wilfred Owen wrote Dulce et Decorum Est , the difference being that Brooke wrote about the

good of dying for your homeland, and Owen wrote the exact opposite. Dulce et Decorum Est translates to It is sweet and noble to die for one s country, and Wilfred Owen is trying to disprove this saying by describing something saw that was so horrific, he can still see the man dying in smothering dreams that he has. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. At the beginning of the poem Owen is describing to the reader the terrible condition he and his fellow comrades are in as they are making their way back from the warzone, and does this by using similes and metaphors. Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Drunk with fatigue; These descriptions give you the impression

of troops of men trudging along, ill and war-torn in the most literal sense, struggling to keep awake, let alone be alert for enemy attacks. Onomatopoeia is used to describe the muddy conditions, sludge being used first and then trudge, as if the ground is so soft that their feet are sinking in and they cannot move well. The next stanza changes pace dramatically with a few short sentences, and also there is onomatopoeia throughout the stanza, used on every line but one to good effect. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound ring like a man in fire or lime Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. The squadron of men are