The Poetry of World War One

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                     War poems

The first world war may have been a time of great suffering and pain for thousands but it was also a time that gave inspiration to some of the greatest poets and helped them write some of the greatest war poetry ever written. In this essay I will look at how the style of poetry and the attitude of the poets changed over the course of the war.

 The first poem that I'm going to look at is Jessie Pope’s who’s for the game. Jessie wrote poems for the daily mail she was hated by poet Wilfred Owen for her lack of feeling for soldiers on the western front and the way she supported the war from the safety of the home front.

 The poem who's for the game is a poem that was written to encourage young men to sign up for the army and help their country in the war. The poem treats war as a game like football or rugby, it starts who’s for the game the biggest that's played, this is a total lack of understanding for what war is really like. She calls war a picnic and makes men feel like cowards if they didn't sign up.

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        The volunteer was another poem written to make men sign up for the war. It was written by Herbert Asquith, about a man who all his life had a boring job until he went away to fight for his country. Although he died all his dreams are now complete as he has died with honour and he will go to join the great soldiers of the past.

 As the course of the war went on the attitude of the poets changed. They no longer encouraged young men to go and fight for their country ...

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