Suicide in the Trenches by Siegfried Sassoon and Green Beret by Ho Thien.

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Examining Two War Poems

I have chosen to compare, 'Suicide in the Trenches' by Siegfried Sassoon and 'Green Beret' by Ho Thien.

Both these poems are based around the theme of war, however they are set in different periods of time. 'Suicide in the Trenches' deals with the stresses that can inflict and how tragic it can sometimes be. It focuses on the life and death of a soldier boy. Throughout the poem the poet emphasises the simplicity of the boy. The poem has a simple layout and rhyme scheme, Ho Thien is probably trying to suggest the simplicity of the soldier boy and how simple the life of a soldier in the trenches would have been. 'Green Beret' is more recent and is based on the Vietnamese war. It tells the story of a Vietnamese boy who is being threatened with the death of his father to give information about the Vietnamese people. Throughout the poem the poet suggests how the brutal actions of the soldiers only seem to make the resistance force greater. Both of these poems differ from each other but they both show the tragedies involved in war.

The poets in both poems use different methods to show their ideas. In 'Suicide in the Trenches' the poem is structured in quatrains and the poem's layout is very simple. I think that Sassoon used the quatrains and a simple layout to emphasise the simplicity of the "simple soldier boy." I also think that he may have used this layout to imitate the life of a soldier, as soldiers are thought to be orderly and neat. Sassoon uses a title which prepares us for a poem containing grown up men, however, when we read the first line we get the image of a young boy. This shows us that the young boys involved found the war found it so dreadful that some even took extreme measures to get away from it.
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In contrast, Thien uses a narrative approach and relates to events in order as though it was a story. The first long stanza focuses on what happened and the last short stanza focuses on how the resistant forces weren't defeated, suggesting how brave the boy was for keeping quiet. I think that Thien finally revealed the silence of the boy so that the reader remained intrigued in the poem and it kept up the suspense. 'Green Beret' is in free verse and both stanzas are unevenly spread. I think that this is because Ho Thien wants us to ...

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