In this poem Brooke feels content to die for his motherland to protect the people left behind, hoping that his efforts will protect them from the enemy. Even if his contributions were extremely small, shown by the comparison of just a single 'pulse' to an 'eternal mind', he is happy to 'give somewhere back the thoughts England given', meaning to repay his beloved England by protecting her for all that she has provided him with. He values England and wishes to preserve her 'laughter', 'friends' and 'gentleness' for the future. This contentment and happiness is clearly shown by the words 'peace' and 'heaven', and even if he is dead, he can still rest in peace as he has loyally served his country.
Although Brooke glorifies his own death in the poem, it was also used as propaganda to try to recruit new soldiers.
‘Cricket’ was written by Jessie Pope who was one of the few female war poets. She was born in Leicester in 1868 and educated at Craven House, Leicester and North London Collegiate School. Pope was a popular journalist and regularly contributed to Punch, The Daily Mail, and The Daily Express.
This poem was written at the start of the war, and was first published in May 1915. Jessie Pope did not fight in the war, and this is seen throughout all of her poems as she did not realise the horrors of the war, as she was never in the trenches. Jessie Pope’s poetry represents a patriotism that is rarely expressed to such an extreme in other female writing of the war. Her poetry does not express a uniform feeling about the war, although the strength of it meant that she was an extremely unpopular poet during the war.
However in 1915, the morale of the English was not as high as that at the start of the war. Disillusionment had begun to creep in as the war had not been won before Christmas. The poem starts with a view of the cricket pitch, but of a cricket pitch without men playing on it. Pope describes weeds and flowers starting to “annex the place reserved for stumps.” Jessie Pope uses several uncertain images such as “stripped” and “bare.” These two words are very negative and show the reader the feeling of emptiness on this barren cricket pitch.
We find out in the third stanza that the men that did play cricket have gone off to war to play “a new and deadly game/ where thunder bursts in crash and flame.” This shows us that she knows how dangerous the war is but she still refers to the war as a game. This allegory shows us that she is pro-war, but she refers to war as deadly. In the last stanza the poem returns to pro-war feeling. Pope refers to winning the war as taking “the Kaiser’s middle wicket.”
This poem shows that disillusionment had just started to creep in and the general feeling of the people back home had started to deteriorate. As war progressed the feeling of patriotism demised and this happened as the death toll was rising. People came out of this disillusionment that war is all things great and glorious and began to take in the realities of war. This meant that it was harder to comprehend the ideals of patriotism and duty. This poem is similar to ‘The Soldier’ as it is pro-war, but it shows that disillusionment had started to creep in and this is not evident in Brooke’s poem.
When soldiers returned they spoke from experience and therefore the reality of war and poetry was written to explain war and how it is. One of the soldiers who became a poet was Wilfred Owen.
“Dulce et Decorum est” is a poem about soldiers in the front line and their experiences in the war. Wilfred Owen wrote this poem for the people back home, who thought that the soldiers were heroic and were glad to fight and die for King and Country. Originally, Wilfred Owen had dedicated this poem to Jessie Pope as she was very pro-war, but Siegfried Sassoon urged him not to. This, however, was not the case for many of the soldiers who signed up as they believed they were doing ‘their bit’ for their country and were swept up in the propaganda. This poem could have been written about many battles, but is more probably about 1916, when gas attacks were first tried and tested against the English. I think this poem is about the Battle of Marne.
In the first section of the poem, Wilfred Owen describes the soldiers at the front line as “Old beggars”. He is telling us that these men are so tired that they do not know what they are doing. They march on, because they are told to. Wilfred Owen describes these men as “Drunk with Fatigue”. The first and second stanzas are relatively long, and then there is a short, sharp dramatic sentence, followed by another long paragraph.
The short paragraph in the middle really stands out to the reader:
“In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.”
Because of the powerful, emotive language used, and the fact that it is isolated from the rest of the poem, this sentence grabs the attention of the reader. I think the layout of “Dulce et Decorum est” is purposefully set out as it represents the struggle that the soldier has to face. The first two paragraphs are of similar length, and represent the organised troops going off to war. The short stanza in the middle represents the fact that something can go wrong so suddenly, but they have to keep going no matter what, which is shown by the final paragraph, which is long and flowing.
Also, the 'b' and 'd' sounds are soft and could be showing the slow panting of the soldiers as they trudged through the thick mud. There are also strong lines used in the rest of the poem.
“And watch the eyes writhing in his face,
His face hanging, like a devil's sick of sin”
Owen uses extremely strong and slightly hyperbolical imagery to show how pitiful the war actually was. The 'w' sounds in the first line of this quotation are quite similar to the screaming sounds that the dying soldier might be producing as the gas eats away at his body, whilst the onomatopoeic 's' sounds in the second line of this extract could be referring to the hissing of the gas shells. Another effect of these particular consonants is to show the bitterness that Owen feels because of the shame of the War and how completely pointless it is.
Much of Owen's work was not published until after the war, and indeed his death, so the only rewards Owen could possibly gain were to satisfy his own need to clear his mind of the horrors he had witnessed on the battlefield. Although in my opinion 'Dulce et Decorum Est' is possibly the finest piece of war poetry ever written, it is only a detailed account of war life, not forcing the reader into believing his view of the war. It merely offers the reader the chance in his final stanza, to have a long hard think about how they would feel if placed in the same situation as Owen found himself.
'Dulce et Decorum est' is written almost as a speech, it starts strongly with imagery and similes. Owen uses repetition of the word “gas” driving home the idea of panic, the “fumbling” before you could be safe. The power of threes: "…guttering, choking, drowning."
He uses pauses in several places so that the reader will stop and his message sinks in then continues. He also ends strongly which is very important so the audience has something to immediately reflect on. Why Owen wants ‘Dulce…’ to be like a speech is because, having experienced war, he has a very strong deep down message to tell; the horror of war is so much worse than people imagine. A speech has the power to deliver this message in a way that other scripts cannot.
At the end of Dulce et Decorum est, Owen addresses the reader at a personal level; “My friend.” From this, we can see that he is trying to reach across to the reader, and portray his point of view. The finale to Dulce Et Decorum Est reads: “Dulce Et Decorum Est pro patria mori.” This means, to die for King and Country is to be proud. Nevertheless, before Wilfred Owen says this, he describes that line as “the old lie.” As a front-line soldier he was very aware of the difference between conditions as they were and as they were portrayed at home.
This poem is radically different from Jessie Pope’s ‘Cricket’ and her portrayal of patriotism. In ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ Wilfred Owen is very depressed and angry at the men who tell innocent children that it is honourable to die for your country.
‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ was written while Wilfred Owen was recovering in Craiglockhart Hospital. He collaborated on this poem with Siegfried Sassoon, so in some ways, the poems are similar. The attitude of this poem is clearly bitterness and resentment.
The poem 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' written by Wilfred Owen is a sonnet. 'Doomed youth' means all those young men being sent to war and on the front are destined to die. In the poem the poet expresses his views on what should happen to these people when they die. They all should be given a funeral and a proper send off, even those on the battlefield. You can tell this because throughout the poem he mentions funerals and church services.
The first stanza concentrates on the sounds heard in the trenches like the “stuttering rifles rapid rattle”. This onomatopoeic effect makes the words come alive for the reader. In the second stanza Wilfred Owen goes into more detail about the expected, normal reactions to the frequent deaths and focuses on people's reactions at home rather than death in the trenches. There are many funeral related terms in this stanza some of which are candles, flowers; both of which are present at any organised funeral. Owen is comparing a peacetime funeral with what the 'boys' receive at war.
“Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes” is particularly emotive because it is saying that one only needs to look into their eyes to see the horrors they have witnessed. The sentence “The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;” means that the dead soldiers do not have a cloth, or pall, over their coffin, except for the sad faces of their loved ones. The next line says that the only flowers, (which would come in abundance at a normal funeral), are the tender nature of patient minds. That is, the people waiting at home for a telegram.
The final line, “And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds” symbolises an image of respect. When people were killed at war, or died for any other reason, the families of the dead would draw down their blinds and shut their curtains as a mark of respect enabling them to mourn in private and also let other people know that there had been a death in the family. However, because death was so common during WWI, blinds would be drawn every day.
However, it is important to remember that soldiers only spent 3-4 days a month on average in the front lines and although massive casualties ensued, some did return from the Front.
‘Anthem for Doomed Youth' asks a question at the beginning of each stanza, which it then answers through the rest of that stanza. Owen does this to approach a poem from a different prospective. By asking a question, he gets the reader thinking before answering himself. It causes tension and sadness because the answer to the questions we probably could answer but do not because it is upsetting to remember the dead - especially when the question implies why should it have been them and not you?
These four poems show how attitudes to war radically changed as the war progressed. In ‘The Soldier’, Brooke is very patriotic and extremely pro-war. ‘Cricket’ shows us that in 1915 a feeling of pro-war was still there but disillusionment had started to creep in. The two poems by Wilfred Owen bring home the harsh realities of war and ask the reader, safe at home, to feel pity for the soldiers on the front line. They portray a bitter attitude and strong feelings of anger and resentment.
By Luke Harris 10R/T
