He inspires his men to become war like by telling them to act fierce and aggressive, “then imitate the action of the tiger.” Glare at the enemy and flare your nostrils, all these descriptions conjure up a menacing picture of men before battle.
Henry understands his men and knows how to appeal to them. “On, on you noble England.” He makes them feel patriotic and proud to be British. He uses emotive language again when he talks about the soldiers’ mothers, “Dishonor not you mothers.” These men do not want to disappoint their mothers. In the closing stages of the extract Henry refers to the battle as a game, “The game’s afoot.” This makes the battle sound more light-hearted and not as serious as it actually is. He again makes them feel noble, patriotic and ready to do their best as he cries, “God for Harry, England and St.George!”
“The Charge of the Light Brigade”, is set around the time of the Crimean War. It has a steady rhythm not unlike the charge of the calvary. The inevitable death of some of the soldiers is emphasized by repetition of various kinds, “Half a league, half a league, half a league onward.” Tennyson, who was poet laureate at the time he wrote the poem, also uses the last line in each verse to a very significant effect. In the second verse of the poem we find someone has made a
fatal mistake, “Someone had blundered” possibly meaning the whole offensive had failed. Even so the poem focus’ more on the heroism of the soldiers rather than the blunder, even though the men were sent to their deaths because of mistaking an order. Tennyson was commissioned to write this poem and so he would have written it quickly. He was not actually involved in the charge and got all his information from newspaper articles. He would have also been guided in what to write as the poem was probably used for propaganda.
The rhythm and rhyme are the most memorable things in the poem,
“Shattered and sundered,
Then they rode back but not
Not the six hundred.”
This extract from the poem also shows that men lost their lives in this battle. Showing that people lost their lives in this battle would make the public want to win the war even more. In fact the poem was meant to revive people’s patriotism and also to reinforce the British participation in the Crimean War. Tennyson honours the men involved in the battle and focuses on the bravery and courage. He reminds us of what glory it is to die for your country.
“Honour the charge they made
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble Six hundred!”
Henry Newbolt wrote “Vitae Lampada” in 1892 and it very much glorifies war and empire. Vitae Lampada actually means, ‘The Torch of life’. A set of values and attitudes handed from one generation to the next. It is each generation’s responsibility to take up this torch and having assumed the mantle hand it onto the next. There is an analogy in the poem between war and a game of cricket, “Ten to make and the match to win.” The poem begins with boys playing cricket and then portrays them as young men in battle, “the regiment blind with dust and smoke.” There is an extended image throughout the poem of boys playing cricket and men on the battlefield. It serves to trivialize war, the horrors of war are not mentioned, only the upper class views of the glories attached to warfare. Newbolt is giving the impression that life is cheap. It does not matter how many lives are lost as long as you win the game or war. Each verse concludes with, “play the game”, the poet’s final word on the subject. The poet believes that war is essential in order to keep the empire alive. He sees no difference between the boys playing a game of cricket than to fighting in a battle. They both have the same duty to their team and to their country. The poet definitely sees war as a positive act and believes that it is every man’s duty and it is very honourable. The boys in the final verse have an inbuilt drive to succeed that is so important that it is like the torch of life to be handed on to each child.
Even if these boys did not want to play the game, or fight in the war they probably had no choice and pressure being put on them from older generations forced them to do something they did not want to do, “And none that hears it dare forget.”
In this poem Thomas Hardy uses his imagination, as he is more naturally a novelist. Even though he is not as used to writing poetry he writes this piece to a superb standard. The opening couple of lines of “Drummer Hodge” are abrupt, dramatic and harsh,
“They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined – just as found.”
Hardy gets straight to the point that Hodge is treated appallingly, being shown no respect or dignity. He uses the name of Hodge to show the cruelty to the individual.
This young boy, “never knew” why he was out on a battlefield and did not know what was happening he was merely obeying orders. Geographical words relating to the South African landscape such as, “Karoo, the Bush, the dusty loam” and the “unknown plain” are used to show that this is an unfamiliar place where the boy’s final resting place is “eternal.” He died in a foreign field without a proper mourning in a war that he did not understand. It was a total waste of life and the poet strongly condemns it. The “unknown plain” stresses that he doesn’t know why he is in this foreign land. He should have been at home with his family having proper grave and mourning, but instead he is tragically left somewhere where he died dazed, bewildered and afraid.
Jessie Pope was commissioned by the Daily Mail to write war verses to inspire men to sign up for the war; this was a recruiting poem. This is a poem included in the first wave of war poetry. She was particularly disliked by the soldier poet, Wilfred Owen, who saw her as a typical of the unfeeling civilian who was supporting the war from the relative safety of the Home Front. The title of the poem, “Who’s for the Game?” makes war sound light-hearted similar to Henry Newbolt’s poem Vitae Lampada. It is also a rhetorical question, which is putting ideas into people’s minds.
The first stanza opens with a repetition of the title, and continues to say, “the biggest that’s played.” These young men want to be a part of the biggest game that is going to be played. The colour “red” brings in excitement and danger into the poem and the use of question marks makes men think about what they really want to be doing. No one wants to be seen as afraid and this appeals to men and is persuasive. The game terminology, “grip and tackle” puts a lighter
touch to the situation. The stanza is structured as three lines of excitement and the final line is the safe option, “And who thinks he’d rather sit tight?”
By the beginning of the second stanza it has turned from a game of rugby into a race, “Who’ll toe the like for the signal to GO?” She makes it sound like you owe something to your country; it needs your helping “hand.” By saying hand it doesn’t sound as serious as, you might lose your life in the battle. Making it sound light-hearted again by turning it into a play, “Who wants a turn to himself in the show?” and who just wants to watch it happen. In the third stanza she admits that this won’t be and easy ride but she also warns not to be put off by this, “Yet eagerly shoulders a gun?” Coming back from the war with a crutch doesn’t sound serious and it would make you look like a war hero. She describes the war as being “fun.” The men will find when they get out there that this is far from the truth.
The fourth stanza sums up the whole poem like a conclusion and leaves you with the idea that you should go and join up for the war. It is a personal touch telling them that there is only one path to choose. By referring to the country as female, “up to her neck in fight” makes her sound vulnerable to the men and they would want to go and help her. It finishes with a final personal touch, “calling for you.”
In the second wave of First World War poetry, poets were concentrating on the enthusiasm that the people were showing for war. Most British people had forgotten what war was really like. The poets showed the war as an epic. The ideas of chivalry as in ‘The General Prologue, The Portrait of the Knight,’ and the figure of the knight. To us, the Edwardian era seemed glamorous but to the people of the time it was boring and dull. In 1914 the war seemed to be a glorious adventure. Rupert Brooke was one of the most famous poets of the time. His sonnets caused a sensation when they appeared just after his death on the way to Gallipoli in 1915.
His poem ‘The Soldier’ is very patriotic. He portrays England as a place where good things happen and we want to protect this, “that is forever England.” This would encourage the soldiers to do well in this battle. He makes it sound like the men who are going to fight will become richer as they have given thee lives for their country. This is like the extract from Henry V, England has made them what they are. It is unusual that this poem is written in the style of a sonnet because sonnets are related to love poems, although in a way this is a love poem about England even though he is describing war. Brooke is not scared of death because he sees that his death will of achieved something, “Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given.” Brooke was an established poet before WWI even though this poem was only discovered after his death. It is generally
thought that if he had lived to see trench warfare he would have produced some outstanding, moving, and memorable poetry.
The third wave of war poetry in the First World War was more realistic as photos and stories were coming back from the home front showing what it was really like to fight in the trenches. The injuries were dreadful and no one had ever seen anything like this before. This is the best wave of war poetry during WWI. The trench poets show the truth and they were the true hero’s of the war. Wilfred Owen was one of the famous trench poets. His poems were published after his death; he died on November 4th 1918 just a few days before the war ended. He was awarded the military cross for his bravery. In him poem ‘Disabled’ he imagines the thoughts of a very young officer. During the war many people lied about their age so they could have the chance to fight. People as young as 14 were fighting, and this wasn’t uncommon.
This young boy went to war because he wanted to be a war hero and have all the advantages that came with that. He probably never even though about what could happen to him, he had not thought about the true horrors of war. Now no one wants to look at him, he is “Legless, sewn short at elbow.” He wanted his whole life to change because of the war but not in this way. It says, “He threw away his knees.” This makes it sound like they were a waste but all he was, was a young boy who had been drawn in by the propaganda. He sees that all he looks forward to his death.
“Now, he is old; his back will never brace;
He’s lost his colour very far from here,
Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry.”
He says that he signed up for warfare when he was drunk, “when he’d drunk a peg.” The uniforms attracted him and he was trying to impress his girlfriend. When we went away to war he had a sense of pride and his girlfriend was there to wave him goodbye. On his return the only person to inquire about him was the priest, “and then inquired about his soul.” All he can see to look forward to is the end of his life, “Why don’t they come/ And put him into bed? Why don’t they come?”
The Wilfred Owen poem, ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ shows the true horrors of warfare. It is a very visual poem and is full of metaphor. This is the most famous Owen poem ever written. He writes about a gas attack and the first line describes the soldiers, “bent double.” They sound like they are worn down. “Under sacks”, this describes there clothing, it doesn’t sound like they are in their smart regimental uniform. These young men are now “like hags,” this makes them sound unpleasant and old. The men are “Cursed” to be doing what
they are doing. These men are suffering for something which they thought they wanted to do. The “Sludge” makes it sound like really heavy going and they are finding it hare to move forward. They are so exhausted but they have to move on. It is almost like a dream as though they are not really there. They are finding it hard to think clearly because of their terrible tiredness, “drunk with fatigue.”
In the second stanza the tempo changes in reaction to the sudden explosion. “An Ecstasy of fumbling” makes it sound like happiness which is different to what is actually happening. There is mass panic as the gas drifts across the trenches and the men struggle to fit their helmets for protection. The men look through protection to the people who don’t have masks on, “Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light.” The affect of the gas is like drowning because you are becoming suffocated. It must have been a terrible scene seeing men, “guttering, choking, drowning”, as you stood there totally helpless to being able to release their pain. Stanza four is similar to Drummer Hodge as it describes the way in which they loaded the bodies onto the trucks, “flung him in.” Owen is dramatic in the way which he describes the man’s face, “Like a devil’s sick of sin.” This shows how bad the situation must really of been. There is too much badness if the devil is sick of all the sin. He describes the noises of what is happening, “gurgling from the froth-corrupted lungs.” This really does show the true horrors and pain of war. The last two lines of the poem, “The old lie: Dulce et Decorum est/Pro patria mori,” are a direct attack on Jessie Pope. Owen disliked her way of writing encouraging men to go to their deaths by fighting for your country.
War poetry has changed hugely over time; it has gone from showing that war was heroic and good to it being evil and horrific. The true horrors of trench warfare came out during WWI and this is when war poetry changed dramatically. The trench poets exposed the terror of war and this is when war poetry made a major change. It has changed as the machinery used in the battles have become more destructive and so the injuries have become worse and the death toll has become higher. I think that the true heros of war are the trench poets such as Wilfred Owen and Seigfried Sassoon. They were drawn in by the false propaganda and gave their lives for their country and died awful deaths without proper funerals and periods of mourning. They were shown no respect by the people who had put them in that position.
