War Poetry

War Poetry Coursework

Robert E. Lee said, ‘It is well that war is so terrible – we would grow too fond of it.’

By looking closely at some of the war poetry you have read, discuss how different poets have expressed the terrible nature of war.

This is a literary essay looking at war poems. War always has a bad outcome one way or another, whether it is loss of life or a bad person taking over. In the three poems I have read, each poet describes how war is terrible in different ways, using different wars to do so. Wilfred Owen wrote about the First World War while he was in a hospital suffering from shellshock, before dying a day before the war ended. Carol Ann Duffy was writing about more modern wars such as, Belfast, Beirut and Phnom Penh. She writes it from a different view as that of a war photographer but it is still as effective.

In my opinion, ‘Dulce’ is the most descriptive and disturbing of the three poems I read. It was written by Wilfred Owen.

The first four lines show disturbing images of young soldiers, “Bent double, knock-kneed, coughing like hags, cursed through sludge.” The phrase, “knock-kneed” could mean they are scared, the simile, “like old beggars”, shows they are dirty, starving and have little respect. They have been degraded to the status of beggars, as disrespected as beggars.

Structurally, the phrase “men marched asleep” is very important; it follows on from the long four-line sentence. It is very effective, very blunt but in its harshness it speaks volumes. There is a slight sense of pride as the soldiers are marching, the phrase, “limped on, blood shod” is another physical description of graphic imagery. The poet says they are “lame and blind.” This is metaphorically speaking. They are blind to war. They are physically broken. “Drunk with fatigue” is describing their walking manner. They are walking with difficulty, stumbling, they are not actually drunk but overwhelmingly tired. Their tiredness is consuming, it is affecting all of their body it affects sight, how they walk etc. like they are drunk. The poet also says they are “deaf.” They are deaf to the sounds, sights and all of war. When he describes the gas-shells “dropping softly behind” it is interesting that the poet uses soft vowel sounds like hoots, dropping, softly when describing the harsh impact of a bomb! The soldiers have become immune to the sounds, they are used to the sound, they could be thinking of other things or too tired to care. (Gas attack) The man is choking on gas, as if drowning at sea. Three exclamation marks in a row, “Gas! Gas! Quick boys! An ecstasy of fumbling”

The soldiers are panic stricken, adrenalin rush. There is an unusual use for the word ecstasy, which is usually associated with happiness, is used for a sudden frightening rush. The poet is having a dig at the government by saying “clumsy helmets.”

This is a preview of the whole essay

The people are nameless because there are so many casualties and no one knows who the people are. They are helpless, hopeless, panic stricken. Everything has become dim. A thick green atmosphere surrounding him “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning” The green sea is green gas. He is describing the image of him, the man is completely helpless, it is too late. There is agony and desperation in the word “plunges.” There are hard consonant sounds and onomatopoeia, “guttering, choking.” He uses the extended metaphor again that the man is drowning. “In all my dreams.” At this point he is talking in both present and past tense. After the event he has recurring nightmares about this incident. He admits that this image cannot leave him as it is in all his dreams. This image has a haunting effect.

The third stanza needs an involvement from the reader. He is asking the reader to empathise with his situation. “Smothering dreams” is another reference to the nightmare. “Wagon we flung him in” talks about the soldiers’ provisions and equipment again. Flung is a very casual term. They have either got used to the dead bodies so they just fling him in or just don’t have time to do it respectively. “White eyes writhing” is an example of immense pain. “Hanging face” shows he has no control over his face, the implication of near death. The simile “like a devils sick of sin” is ironic because the devil thrives on sin. Here the devil realises this death is so sick that even he would not like it. “Blood come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs.” This image we can see and hear. These are descriptions that are followed by images, “obscene as cancer,” these two are similes. He is saying it is a disgusting death like cancer, which eats through you and affects everyone. “Bitter as the cud-of vile” This event is described as being as bitter re-eating something vile. “Incurable sores on innocent tongues.” This image is a bit more obscene. He could be talking about children with incurable sores on their tongues. He is comparing the young soldiers to children. They are equally innocent. This illness is incurable (gas attack). He is saying you would not tell young children who are desperate for glory that “it is sweet and right to die for your country.” He describes it as the old Lie. Lie is in capital for effect. We realise that Wilfred Own says that war is a vicious, degrading and horrific event. He is outrage that young people are told that it is a great, glorifying act. He accuses people of telling it with high zest. “You” could be the government, the public or everyone. He uses the quote in irony. He does not believe “it is sweet and right to die for your country.”

The persona of War photographer is a photographer who is a man and is written in his point of view. He is remembering the different venues he has photographed. It was written by Carol Ann Duffy.

(In his darkroom) He has all his films of suffering. All of his photos have suffering in them. What they contain are chaos. His spools are organised in orderly rows. There is a romantic, serene setting as if it were a church. The poet is comparing himself to a priest. This shows how seriously he takes his job. A priest and a photographer bring faith in their opinions, and how (by photographing them) he stands up for those who cannot help themselves. Both of them speak to a community, both have a powerful voice; they will take time to prepare for what they are doing. The process of delivery is careful, particular and the atmosphere and objects that are needed must be carefully prepared and organised. The last line is made up of three war zones. He puts a full stop in between each place so there is a full pause. “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass” “All flesh is grass” comes from the Old testament book of Isaiah. It concerns the contrast of human life with eternal life. It shows the fragility of human life and how it is not everlasting unlike a Christian life. It is playing on the term that life comes to an end. Significantly, this quote follows the list of places where lives have been cut shorter than normal. These are physical examples of where life has ended.

The photographer carries out his job in a calm and systematic matter and this is contrasted with the violent images of children being maimed and killed due to land mines exploding. When he was taking the pictures he was calm and controlled but when he looks at what he took his hands are trembling. When he is doing his job he cannot comprehend what he is seeing because he is so focused, however now he takes a step back and lets his humanity come out. There are several short sentences throughout about rural England. He is thinking about rural England. He is summing up rural England by saying “ordinary pain” like simple every day inconveniences compared to the likes of land mines killing children.

A photograph is being developed. He remembers the features of the photo. “Half-formed ghost” is a reference to the half-developed photo but also the implication that the man in the photo is dead. This image triggers a disturbing memory. “The cries of this mans wife.” He must have sought approval from the mans wife to take a photo. “To do what someone must.” He believes his job is necessary and someone has to do it. He sees himself as a priest because he was called to this job just as priests believe they were called. The stanza ends with, “the blood stained into foreign dust.”

Emotional, spiritual and physical agonies. His editor picks five or six from around one hundred photos. He thinks about the others whose stories will never be told. He finds this annoying but difficult. He says when we look at the photos we find them emotional for maybe a second but then just go on and forget about them. A small, fleeting emotion. When he is in the aeroplane coming home he “stares impassively” at where he earns a living. He doesn’t care about being home because he still thinks about the war cities. He knows he will arrive home to people who do not care about the cities. He has no emotion for England. He sees it as a place where he makes a living. The fact that the poem is set in three venues; the darkroom, the aeroplane and the cities show they have an impact on the photographer.

Anthem for Doomed Youth is about the comparisons between traditional funerals and war funerals. It was written by Wilfred Owen.

For a traditional funeral you get lots of bells, in contrast the soldiers get loud gunfire at a war funeral. There is a use of alliteration, “rifles’ rapid rattle.” The soldiers don’t get prayers or bells, which is a subtle but negative comment towards religion. If God were real he would stop the violence. Also an attack towards the congregation of people who say the prayers because these are traditions and trappings that people do without even feeling emotions. Choirs are often at funerals but for the soldiers there are no people singing, there is no time; instead there are loud shells. There is an oxymoron for “shrill, demented choirs” because choirs are supposed to be nice and beautiful. “Bugles calling for them from sad shires.” A bugle is an instrument usually played at funerals. “From sad shires,” shires are countries.

Candles are lit at funerals and the soldiers have no candles, they don’t have time to stop and light a candle but it does reflect on them with tears welling in their eyes shining.

The word “boys” indicates that the soldiers are young. The “pall” is the whiteness of the sheet put on a dead body. The look is one of despair, distress, desperation and it is creating a blank colourless look. “Pallor of girls brow”, he compares that look to the sheet that would cover a dead body in a coffin. It is effective because they are motionless, expressionless.

At a traditional funeral you would get people walking behind the hearse, that is the “followers,” the equivalent is “silent minds” which is when the soldiers can’t physically be near the hearse, they do it with “tenderness.” They don’t just do it with their minds; they are “silent minds.”

He thinks of how the day ends for all the people affected by death. He talks about a “drawing-down of blinds.” That image is both literal and metaphoric. Literal because that is what people do in war time; black out blinds. Metaphoric because it represents people shutting out the pain of the death. The soldiers don’t talk about it; they go on as cattle. The mums and wives don’t know what to do or think. The government are masking the truth so they are not admitting what is going on.

Comparisons between the poems are:

The themes. All the poems are about war. They are about the horrors of war. “Dulce” is about the frontline, gas attacks, action, and anger towards the government. “Anthem” is about the aftermath and the stark contrasts of lack of funerals for soldiers. “Photographer” is about the experiences of a photographer who has witnessed the suffering in ignorance of people at home and how they respond. “Anthem” and “Photographer” show the effects of war compared with the normalities of life.

The imagery. In “Anthem” they describe the soldiers as “cattle” which refers to them being mindlessly slaughtered. In “Dulce” they describe them as “beggars” and “hags” which indicates that they are of a very low status.

Jack Brown

11.a Mrs. Lowe