Poetry comparison - Flanders Field, Fall In and Anthem for Doomed Youth

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Poetry Coursework Essay

My essay is going to discuss the comparisons and contrasts of the three poems I have chosen. The first is called ‘In Flanders Fields’ and is written by John McCrae, born in 1872-1918. McCrae was a Canadian doctor who first served as a gunner in Europe and gradually became a military medical officer. He partook in the battle and had a sense of strong disagreement to it. McCrae died at the age of 46 years. He didn’t die like most of the other soldiers in the war. He did not die like others from a bullet or bomb, but from disease, pneumonia, in his case. Nowadays this disease can be treated, but not then. The next one is called ‘Fall In’ written by Harold Begbie. He was the son of a clergyman. He was born in 1871-1929. He had a very successful career writing novels and children’s books. One of the most popular poems he wrote was a biography of General Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. At the beginning of the war he published several poems designed to shame men who hadn’t joined the army, to do so. By the end of the war, he changed his opinion and was horrified by what was happening during the war and what he had done at the beginning of it. ‘Fall In’ was first published in a volume called Fighting Lines and Various Reinforcement (1914). The last poem will be ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ written by Wilfred Owen. Owen states in this poem that he does not intend to glorify war and tell people what a ‘wonderful place’ it is. Wilfred was born in 1893 and had been pressured by propaganda, where he volunteered on 21st October 1915 to become a war militant to serve for his country. It has been argued that Owen is the best war poet of England but there are many others that are just as inspirational.

Two of my poems share the view that the war was a disaster and lead to tragic numbers of lives being lost. But the other is showing how the men who didn’t fight for their country won’t be ‘getting the girls’. The poems have different structure, imagery and mood.

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In the poem 'In Flanders Fields', McCrae uses imagery to express his views on the war. The imagery is very powerful, 'we are dead' showing that the horrific effects of war by the fact that the soldiers lives were ended much shorter than what they could have been if they hadn’t fought and died in the battle, where they were trying to fight for their country and show they are loyal men. McCrae also uses imagery in another way to show that there were many lives lost on the battlefield. In this case being dead soldiers. He says in ...

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