Even though the man dies, the poem is phrased in a way which makes him look like a hero. ‘Now these are satisfied.’ This shows that he has finally gone to war and done what he used to dream about. ‘His lance is broken; but he lies content.’ This compares him to a knight. He is said to be content because he was able to live life to the full in his final hours. The man doesn’t need a reward because for him just being part of the war is all he wanted. The man doesn’t need an elaborate funeral because his body is now among the heroes of ‘Agincourt’, whose mention immediately conjures up the images of the patriotic heroism in Shakespeare’s Henry V. The poet was too old to have fought in the war and the poem has obvious propaganda purposes and was the sort of poem which persuaded men to sign up. This poem is about patriotism and it was criticised by poets such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, both of whom fought on the western front.
The next poem I have chosen is ‘After Blenheim’ by Robert Southey. It differs a lot from ‘The volunteer’. This poem is trying to get the message across that war doesn’t just affect the soldiers. It shows us that ordinary innocent civilians suffer too. The poem consists of three voices: one old and two very young. The first verses of the poem are very peaceful, with an old man surrounded by his grandchildren. He is resting on a summer’s day after he has finished his work. This tranquillity is interrupted when Peterkin finds something which turns out to be the skull of a dead soldier. Old Kaspar says that he often ploughs up the skulls of those that fought at Blenheim. He says for ‘many thousands died’. I find it shocking that he says he often finds skulls and it just shows you the effects of war. The children are curious and they ask what all the fighting was about. Kaspar does not no why, all he knows is that it was a battle between France and England. He also says that a lot of civilians suffered as the result of the fighting. Even Kaspar’s father lost his home and had to become a refugee. The poem also tells us that many bodies were just left to rot on the battlefield.
Obviously what Kaspar is telling them shocks the innocent children (‘twas a very wicked thing’/’ But what good came of it at last?) with the official version of events, repeated without conviction by Old Kaspar. The ironic words ‘great’ and ‘famous’ are used. ‘Great’ means ‘ large’, and obviously with many casualties. We usually use the word great to describe a battle where it was morally right for example WW II, where the allies were fighting against the evil Nazis. In this battle however Kaspar doesn’t even know why it was fought, so how can it be a great battle? It had no moral importance, so did so many die for nothing? I think these are the points the poet is trying to get across. This poem differs a lot with those which link war with honour and glory such as ‘The volunteer’. There is some effective detail in this poem. I have particularly noticed the use of irony and the contrasts between the innocence of the children.
The next poem I have chosen is from the viewpoint of an ordinary soldier. A soldier who has no political axe to grind. It shows us that the soldier has killed a man just like himself but if he hadn’t been in the war they would have probably sat down drinking ale together. ‘We should have sat us down to wet.’ This shows that if it was peacetime they would have been friends. The poem says ‘But ranged as infantry’ this shows that they weren’t friends in the pub but were on the front line as enemies even though it wasn’t a personal argument between the two of them. The man is trying to justify his actions, ‘Because he was my foe, just so, my foe of course he was.’ The man is trying to convince himself that he had done the right thing. He does it by repeating that the man was his ‘foe’. To call him his ‘foe’ is a very strong word to use because the have never met each other. Neither of them felt strongly about the war and they both probably enlisted in the army just to make some money. This shows that normal men can kill each other because they are ordered to. If war hadn’t intervened they could have treated each other to some drink in a pub. I think this poem is very hard hitting because it tells you that they could’ve been friends yet one of them ends up shooting the other. This tone is sad and slightly bewildered. Whereas ‘The Volunteer’ is all about the heroics of war, this poem highlights the bad points of war. Including shooting a man that didn’t actually care for what he was fighting for. I think it is similar to ‘After Blenheim’ in the fact that Kaspar didn’t know what the fighting was about and the way these soldiers don’t actually have political axe to grind.
In ‘To Lucasta, Going to the wars’ it is all about a soldier going off to war. He writes to his beloved and explains why he is going to war. He describes war like a mistress, ‘ True, a new mistress now I chase.’ He tells his girlfriend that she is pure and the way he describes her she is like a nun. ‘That from the nunnery, of thy chaste breast and quiet mind.’ He says that he likes his girlfriend for who she is but the war gives him the excitement he needs. It’s almost as if he is having an affair with the war. He also says that the war will not only benefit him but her also, ‘I could not love thee, dear so much, Loved I not honour more. He is basically saying that he would get bored with his girlfriend if he didn’t have this ‘mistress’ to give him some excitement. This poem speaks about the good side of war and the excitement, it is much different to ‘ After Blenheim’ and ‘ The man he killed.’
