Sassoon still assumes that God is completely on the English side but at the end of the poem there is a suggestion of his desertion stating "O Christ almighty, now I'm stuck". He introduces a new type of sordid realism into the descriptions of trench warfare that accompany this theological image. "The Redeemer" is a narrative poem and the form reflects this by having one very long stanza.
Wilfred Owen's "Exposure" speaks about the feelings of someone who has recently reached the front line for the first time and whose Christianity has been challenged. Owen uses alliteration "Merciless iced east winds" to create coldness and merciless quality, making us feel the "iced" winds with the sound of the words. At the end of each stanza Owen deliberately adds short lines that don't rhyme with anything, giving the reader a taste of the anticipation the soldiers felt in the trenches while expecting something to happen but again "Nothing happens".
Owen uses a lot of alliteration to create effect and uses caesura throughout the poem, stopping the constant flow of the rhythm, relating to the situation. For the soldiers were unsure of what was about to happen so there wasn't a constant flow of thought. The last stanza tells of the weather being the murderer of many soldiers in the trenches while they were waiting to go into battle. In these horrific conditions men were stuck in trenches for weeks, defending their country, and even though many died, it seemed unimportant for still the poem finishes on "But nothing happened".
The poets had changed their views to those they had in their early visions. For they now felt that Christianity had so far failed to explain or justify the enormous scale of the slaughter and the terrible indignities to which war subjected individuals as they died. Poets now began to tell of the horrific reality on the Western Front instead of being totally patriotic.
As in Robert Nichol's poem "noon" he describes the soldiers being "like cattle in a pen", waiting to be slaughtered. He introduces us to this horrific situation where the soldiers don't know whether they are coming or going. The first stanza is almost like a contrast to war as it describes "The hot wind puffs" and "The great sun rakes the skies" of midday. Although the soldiers are left doing nothing in these trenches, life around them is still pressing on as normal "A buzz and a blaze of flies" which could be rather frustrating. Although there is no human activity, the verbs are active.
Nichols then goes on to describe what he sees around him where "Forty standing men endure the sweat and grit and stench", as if like "Cattle in a pen", the first three stanzas have no activity in them for he is looking at nature around him and thinking of what sometimes happens "sometimes a snipers bullet whirs" " sometimes a soldier sighs and stirs". Then stanza four goes back to activity where everything is happening "From out of a high cool cloud descends an aeroplanes far moan", but the men are still standing.
Nichols uses a lot of personification throughout his poem: "trench glares" "hot wind puffs" "aeroplane's far moan" to make the poem have a more dramatic effect on the reader especially because there is no human activity in it, he uses alliteration throughout the poem "buzz and blaze" "soldier sighs and stirs" to also create effect. The last stanza has quite a sarcastic tone "we bide the next shrewd move of fate" and the last line sums the poem up "Be it of life or death" For the soldiers are playing a game of chance and this goes with the idea of "puzzled questioning". Nichols' description of the battlefield implies the conclusion that Sassoon stated "War is hell and those who institute it are criminals".
Wilfred Sassoon's poem "The Rearguard" tells the story of how a normally decent officer kicks a recumbent figure, which he first imagines to be a sleeping soldier but then recognises as a corpse. He tells the story but then leaves it to create an impact on the reader. He uses free verse, narrative for he just simply wants to tell his story. He has no regular rhyme to create more of a disturbance on the reader. The last stanza goes back to the beginning with the rhyme and pace slowing down to create a deeper impact. The poem starts by going down "Step by step" and ends by coming up "Step by step" suggesting that there is still hope for the light at the end of the tunnel. The moral of the poem is that war corrupts everything and everyone that takes part in it, even the bravest of officers.
The poets have left the stage of being patriotic and are becoming bitter towards what has happening. They start writing how it is and are taking pity on the poor "Brave" soldiers. Just as in Wilfred Owens poem "Futility", which reflects his anger towards God and is confused in asking as to why God created this planet so that he could kill them all and stick them in these awful conditions.
His other poem "Strange Meeting" is a pessimistic poem about a meeting with the enemy who he has killed at war. He now shows compassion for the waste of life on the German side too "With piteous recognition in fixed eyes". He now sees his enemy as a friend "Strange friend" for he realises that both countries young men have been wasted in the war and feels "the mercy of waste".
The poem is written in para rhyme creating an unsettling atmosphere with a kind of echoing quality to it. The metre of the poem is plodding on with a heaviness reflecting the heaviness in his heart for now he realises the feeling of defeat at mercy of the commanders and he feels that he could of left something to life, but with the "truth untold" being "the pity of the war","the pity war distilled".
Owen was more concerned with war and the pity of war than the actual poetry itself. His poetry stresses the tragic waste of war rather than patriolism or anger. He makes us aware of what these men could have achieved if they had only lived. This point is forcibly expressed in his poem "Strange Meeting". The feeling of hopelessness led several of the poets to write bitter satires against war. Siegfried Sassoon was in Britain with a liberal M.P who tried hard to convert the majority of the M.P's to the idea that a negotiated peace was the best idea, but they did not convert, yet this made a profound impression on Sassoon who now felt a desire to protest against the way the war was being fought.
In Sassoon's poem "Does It Matter?" there is an absolute bitterness in the way soldiers were treated in the war. It begins by asking a question "Does it matter?" it follows by saying "Losing your legs?" for he uses a sarcastic tone to the poem making the readers aware that no one cares if these men lost their legs, their eyesight, their Lives, as long as they fought for our country, people will always be kind to them. The poem is crude in its context but extremely direct for he gets his point across to the readers in a straightforward colloquialism. The poem is written in three stanzas with a regular rhyming pattern in each stanza which reflects the other stanzas. It is written in total pity for the soldiers and the bitterness is extremely hard hitting.
Wilfred Owen's poem "Inspection" spells out the irony of war proclaiming that it is not our own human race causing this destruction but it is our God who we all love and respect, taking all his young men back for his inspection in the sky, therefore it is of a good cause, for "The race will bear Field-Marshal God's inspection". Owen uses this type of irony because the war was wiping out all our youth which he declares as "The world is washing out its stains". This poem is the bitter satire of the waste, indignity and lost of our youthful men and Owen declares this in an unintelligent way so that it comes across ridiculous or hateful to his readers. There is a neat contrast between what he seems to say, and the effect that he intends to have on his readers. This seems to appear a lot in the "bitter satire" of this poets work.