The poets at the beginning of the first world war portray unrealistic attitudes towards war, and as Houseman states "They saved the sum of things for pay" sarcastically insinuating that our soldiers risked their own lives for money.

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The poets at the beginning of the first world war portray unrealistic attitudes towards war,  and as Houseman states "They saved the sum of things for pay" sarcastically insinuating that our soldiers risked their own lives for money, when defending their country. He writes in a sarcastic tone even though the mood is pathos, and personifies the earth when its "foundations fled". The structure of his poem "Epitaph on an army of Mercenaries" is in two quatraines with a regular rhyme to keep it so simple to bring the message across more starkly. 

The young men who went to fight for their country went with a certainty that theirs was a just war and as Sassoon states "they are fortunate who fight" in his short poem "France" where he personifies war, saying "She triumphs" and sees it as "Victory and delight". The language he uses glorifies war and death for the "gleaming landscapes" which is ironic when thinking about the dire conditions of the war. 

The "Early Visions" poets were very patriotic towards the war. For example, Herbert Asquith's poem "The Volunteer" portrays an unrealistic attitude, for he describes it in a way that was nothing like the First World War with the "Gleaming eagles of the legions", and the "Waiting dreams" of the young men longing to go and fight. The poem is out moded poetic nonsense with his "Horsemen, charging under phantom skies, past beneath the oriflamme". Herbert proclaims the clerk being totally "content" when lying dead for his country. The language he uses is heroic when insinuating that the clerk’s days will drift away "with no lance broken in life's tournament".  

Another example is Rupert Brooke's poem "The Soldier" which is about an English soldier proud of being English and dying "With all evil shed away" and insisting that in war "Nobleness walks in our ways again". The end of the poem is very patriotic insisting that England is like heaven "In hearts at peace, under an English heaven", just perfect. The poem is written in a poetic voice with a regular rhyme scheme but in different arrangements in each stanza. There is a proud tone to the poem which correlates with the message being "proud of being English" in the poem.   

As time moved on, the soldiers began to doubt whether there was going to be a "Swift victory" and so the poets moved from patriotic poetry onto a more puzzled questioning poetry and to, being unable to answer any questions. Sassoon’s poem "The Redeemer" is rather disturbing because for the first time the readers are hearing about the dire conditions and reality of the war. We sense this by the opening word "Darkness" which sets the dreary mood immediately. The story begins by telling of an English soldier in the trenches who is thinking about the "Peaceful folk" lying in their beds "snug asleep" while he is lugging his "clay- sucked boots" along the trenches when being "soaked, chilled and wretched". With a rocket creating a "flare", it lights the face of a dead soldier who he describes as "Christ". He thinks of what the dead soldier has sacrificed in life to fight for his country "good days of work and sport and homely song". (Notice the "ands" in between each subject to bring emphasis to each of them). "Then the flame sank and all grew black as pitch", and he begins his "Struggle" along the trenches again.   

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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 ...

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