In line 13 the use of the phrase,
“With eyes as wild”
Gives the interpretation that he is not thinking properly, he is frightened and on edge, ready to snap at any moment. He will not listen to anyone and is alert because of the sickness of wanting to be home and worry of him getting caught.
She repeats the phrase,
“An English bullet in his heart!”
Twice, this adds to the drama of the moment because you read it twice, it also builds up the momentum and emphases that he was not shot by one of the German’s bullets, but by one of his own English bullets.
Winifred M. Letts concludes the poem by calling the deserter a “Hero”.
This again makes the reader sympathise with him, and have a slight amount of admiration for him, as throughout the poem they have been put in his place, which makes the reader think about what they would do in a similar situation.
The Language all the way through the poem is in favour of the Deserter, using rhetorical questions, and fearful words such as,
“Dogged by night and day”, “Wild eyes”, “Death” and “gripped”. All of these words give the overall impression that the Deserter was trapped in the war, and struggled to get out.
Conversely, Siegfried Sassoon’s “The Hero”, is a satirical poem. A lot of his words mean the opposite to their literal meaning.
For example, in line 8,
“Some gallant lies”
Means the son in the poem was made out by the Senior Officer, who wrote the letter, to be someone, a war hero, which he was not.
As in line 10,
“Her weak eyes”
He is referring to the mother of the sons eyes being filled with tears, they were also weak because she was old, and knew if she opened them fully she would surely cry, and the image of her being proud of her son would be gone. She would look weak to the Brother Officer.
Sassoon uses alteration to add emphases to the poem. For example in line 17,
“Blown to small bits”
And line 12,
“Brimmed with joy
Because he’s been so brave, her glorious boy.”
Most of his alliteration is “B” I think is due to the letter “B” being hard, aggressive and bold. This is what a war can be like.
There are two points of view in this poem. The point of view of the mother, who is weak and fragile. The view of the Brother Officer, who delivered the letter to her, and did not like her son, Jack. This is evident in line13,
“He thought hoe Jack, useless swine”
He blames Jack for his own death, and remembers that he was not a very good soldier.
Siegfried Sassoon concludes the poem with the Brother Officer, recalling Jack’s last days, and his anger towards jack, this is apparent when he calls jack a “Useless swine”. In the last two lines, the Brother Officer changes his point of view slightly when he thinks about the
“Lonely old woman with white hair”. I think he sees that she has no one to look after, and no one to look after her, now her son is dead. He recognises that she will cherish the letter forever, and will be ever proud of her son and for what he did for the country.
The language at the start of the poem is gentle. For example in line 3, the mother says,
“The colonel writes so nicely”
She is calm, but very upset, and trying to hide her upset concentrating on the positives. You can tell she is upset as in line 6 it says,
“Then her face was bowed”
This proves that she did not want the Brother Officer to see her upset.
Towards the end of the poem you start to understand what kind of a soldier Jack really was. And how most of the other soldiers saw him, which was weak. This is proved in line 17,
“And no one seemed to care.”
This also gives the interpretation he did not have many friends.
In conclusion, both “The Hero” and “The deserter” use language to show the brutal reality of the war, by basing their poems on real events that would have happened during the war.
In “The Deserter” soldiers did try to escape and as a result ended up blindfolded against the wall being shot by English soldiers, many even their own friends. Letts makes the reader feel regret and sorrow for his death, as like any of the soldiers he had no choice but to join the army. The language in the poem was rhetorical, truthful and hard hitting, as you put yourself in his shoes.
In “The Hero” Mothers and wives got letters from colonel’s everyday with lies about how great and brave their sons were. Sassoon’s gentle words at the start of the poem makes you feel sad for the old lady. However, as you go through the poem you get to know her son through the Brother Officer as what a coward he was, the language reflects this by using harsh alliteration and cruel words describing the son.