'In Memoriam' by F. A. Mackintosh, 'Death Bed' by Siegfried Sassoon and 'Dulce et Decorum est'by Wilfred Owen.

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First World War Poem Essay

In this essay I am comparing and discussing three poems from the Great War, each by a different author. These poems are ‘In Memoriam’ by F. A. Mackintosh, ‘Death Bed’ by Siegfried Sassoon and ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ by Wilfred Owen.

        First I shall discuss ‘In Memoriam’ by F. A. Mackintosh. The title starts by telling you that the memory of someone who has died is probably involved as the word memoriam is usually used in epitaphs. This can be linked to a memorial which is a monument in memoriam of a lot of people which shows that this not about one person.

        The first stanza starts by saying ‘So you were David’s father,’, and from this you know this is someone who is talking to the father of someone he knew. Also the use of the word ‘were' in the past tense means that David is no longer his son and, at a guess, I’d say David was dead.

The next line says ‘And he was your only son, notice the use of the past tense again in the form of the word of, as this says that he no longer has a son. Also it says his ‘only son’, which implies a tighter bond between the father and son than there would be in a family with two or sons in it and/or daughters, which means that the grief may be amplified.

The next three lines say:

‘And the new-cut peats are rotting,

And the work is left undone,

Because of an old man weeping,’

These lines show that the grief did affect him deeply as he is not earning a living or even keeping warm by keeping the fire going. He is to busy weeping to do anything apart from grieve. This is shown to be the fact by the next three lines:

‘Just an old man in pain,

For David, his son David,

That will not come again.’

This proves that his son ‘David’ is dead and the father will never see him again. In this stanza it seems the theme has already been set, the feeling of death, grief and sadness are that theme.

The next stanza talks about the letters that David wrote to his father and how there was never a mention of the war, just about what his father should be doing on the farm. The stanza last two lines are:

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‘And the Boches have got his body,

And I was his officer.’

Boche is a degrading slang word used by the British to mean Germen people during the war. This sort of thing happens whenever a society feels the need to belittle its enemies. This stanza virtually says David is dead, but it also tells us the person writing the poem is David’s officer. This means that the officer would feel more upset at David’s death than would someone who knew him as a casual friend as he is with his men twenty-four hours a day ...

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*** 3 STARS Essay shows knowledge and understanding of all three poems. Some accurate use of terminology and statements are well supported by quotes throughout. In places closer analysis of language ( such as rhyme and repetition) is needed and at times analysis of poems lacks depth.