Comment on the ways in which First World War poets balance the ideas of hope and hopelessness in their poems.

The poem Exposure has a rather more solemn tone. The length of the poem draws a major difference with the other poems. It is quite long and this gives an image of the war being lengthy. The repetition of ‘but nothing happens’ gives the feeling of the war being long, drawn out and repetitive. In spite of this fact, the use of nature, again a reoccurring factor from the other poems, gives certain degrees of hope. The ‘blossoms’ show life, and that it still exists and brings a spark of hope and happiness to the soldiers. In the poem The Dreamers there are very hope filled images of ‘fire lit homes’ these are very positive beliefs that the soldiers have described. The format of regular rhyming gives an order to the poem. The result of this can be interpreted in two ways. One is that, their once glorious lives have been brought down to a more mundane life, which is a routine waiting for death. For some of them this brings hope that in death there pains, troubles and suffering will be over. Interpreted differently is that the rhyme represents a ‘fatal climax’ that never comes.

        The title of The Dead immediately conjures up images of pain and hopelessness. This is in some parts reflected in the body of the poem. The poem is written in the past tense, this immediately hits you and makes it appear as if Brooke is mourning the soldier’s death. Brooke mainly describes ‘joys’ but there are points, which knock down all that is joyful. The statement is ‘ended’ in an abrupt fashion, as all their joys now become ‘sorrows’. Brooke uses Metaphors in nature to subtly describe sadness and hopelessness. The bitter ‘frost’ bites away at the hope of the soldiers. We are reminded that in death there is not only a freedom but sadness as well. The volunteer has an opposite view of war; the clerk is stuck in a hopeless existence, ‘toiling at ledgers’. Not fulfilling his dreams is holding him back from the glory that would be gained from dieing in battle, which to other people would seem hopeless. The structure of the poem leaves little to the imagination, it is written with regular and orderly rhyme such as ‘spent’ and  ‘tournament’.  This structure gives us the image that the clerk is hopeless in an orderly life, and pines for the glory and thrill of battle.

        Owens poem Exposure has a very bleak feel to it. This is in stark contrast to the glory of The Volunteer. It describes the aching ‘brains’ of the soldiers and the ‘merciless’ winds that ‘knive’ them. This brings about an image of the soldiers being beaten and trodden down, not only by war but the elements as well. This gives a very bleak and hopeless image of the life they lead. The poem is written from the point of view of the soldiers. They question what they are ’doing’ there; the thoughts the soldiers have are hopeless. Each verse of this poem ends in a short succinct statement or question. In verses one, three, four and eight it ends with ’but nothing happens’. This is a very powerful statement as it brings you up to a climax but there is no climax and you can feel the prolonged misery of the soldiers and the hopeless state they are in.

Out of all four of the poems the Dreamers is the most brutal and hopeless. The soldiers are not only ‘gnawed by rats’ but they are ‘mocked’ by their minds; they want to leave.  All they can think of is home and niceties of their previous lives, but they are stuck in their hopeless existences. The ideas of hope and hopelessness are balanced in all the poems, but not always equally. As the war developed so did the poetry, as more died the poetry became more graphic, but the underlying factor is that you cannot have hopelessness with out having hope first and these poems are a very real representation of what hope and hopelessness are.