To what extent are the 'war' poems you have read protesting the wars they describe?

The first 200 words of this essay...

To what extent are the 'war' poems you have read protesting the wars they describe?

A.E Housman and Thomas Hardy, both highly recognised poets, wrote their poems in response to the same war. This war, The Boer War (1899-1902) is affectively described in their writing, particularly by Hardy In 'Drummer Hodge' and 'A Christmas Ghost Story', and by Housman in 'Astronomy'. It is clear to me that these poems are protesting, by choice of language and theme, the wars they describe.

Walt Whitman, America's foremost poet of the time of the Civil War (1861-1864), wrote poems that were affected by his own intimate experience of the war. During the year of December 1862, Whitman travelled to Washington D. C to care for his brother who was wounded as a result of the battle. He then decided to stay and work in hospitals to help those in need. A reader is made to see his poems, 'Reconciliation' and 'A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim' in the light of this highly personal involvement with wounded men. Although each of the five poems deals with the same theme, they do so in different ways: