The rhyme scheme of this poem is in ABAB, which is a very simple scheme, which shows that he is an ordinary man with an uncomplicated view of war. We can tell he is an ordinary man as he uses working class words like “nipperkin” and “off hand like.” He doesn’t use any description or imagery in the moment he shot the man, which shows he did not feel any emotion about what happened or about his attitude towards war.
In the Volunteer, we can see that in the first half of the poem it is about this person’s life before going to war. He describes how dull and negative his life is as he says “toiling at ledgers in a city grey,” which first shows us that he hated being an ordinary person working in books, he feels that there should be more excitement to life than just working. We can tell by this as he also says “with no lance broken in life’s tournament” which means that he feels he has not lived his life at the fullest. This is showing us that he has a positive attitude to go to war, as it may be something new and exciting to do instead of working, he would at last be able to live his life at the fullest.
He then describes to us his dreams of going to war as he says “the gleaming eagles of the legions came,” which clearly shows his positive thoughts about war, but this also shows a romantic attitude to it, as this person is very imaginative and he imagines himself being one the knights fighting for their people in flamboyant armour.
The next stanza now tells us about how he feels dying in the war. The first stanza told us that his lance was not broken in life’s tournament which told us he did not live to the fullest; but now he says “his lance is broken” which tells us he has now lived his life to the fullest and he is happy he has gone to war and died, as the writer says, “but he lies content” which is unusual to us as we would expect to feel unhappy when about to die, but this person feels differently about it. After living a whole life of boredom, he feels happy that he has fulfilled his dreams of going to war, he feels “those waiting dreams are satisfied” and his positive attitude towards war stays the same as they were before, despite that he is dying.
The last stanza of the poem he says that although he is dying, he does not want any reward or honour as he says “falling thus he wants no recompense,” which is very different to what the soldier wanted in The Man He Killed. The soldier in the other poem only went to war for the money, with no feeling towards war whatsoever; whereas in The Volunteer he only went to war to fulfil his dreams and excitement in his life, he didn’t anything in return at all but to satisfy himself. He also says that he didn’t “need any hearse to bear him hence,” he wanted to die where he fought the battle. This shows how passionate he was for war, as he was not as ordinary about it as the soldier in The Man He Killed was.
In The Drum, at the beginning of each stanza he starts with the same two lines which straight away shows us his attitude towards war as he says “I hate that drum’s discordant sound” which shows he has a very strong negative attitude towards the drum which symbolises war to him. It is strong as the word “hate” is a very personal negative feeling to have towards something. The first stanza describes to us how this drum made many young men to go to war. The writer uses a lot of personification of the drum, as though it is controlling the young men as the writer puts “lures from cities and from fields” meaning that this drum has been played in many places to attract recruits who are seeking glory, to fight in the war. But at the end of this stanza, the poet changes from a positive tone to a negative tone by using a list of three “to march, and fight, and fall, in foreign lands,” which means that although these young men are seeking to fight for their country and dreams, many will lose their lives in the war, and die away from their own homes, which first shows why he “hates” the drum in the first place.
The second stanza of the poem is negative the whole way through and very personal. He uses personification again of the drum as though the sound of the drum is talking to him, as he says “to me it talks of ravaged plains, and burning towns,” which now clearly shows us why he hates the sound of it, because it reminds him of the terrible and tragic events of the war he was in, such as “mangled limbs, and dying groans” which gives us a clear image of what war was to him and his attitude to it was strongly negative.
Not only is this poem about how the drum symbolizes the horrors of war, but the poem itself goes in the rhythm of a drum when read aloud, as though there is a beat going through each syllable of the poem, for example “I hate that drum’s discordant sound,” showing how relevant the drum is to this poet and his experience of war.
Out of the three war poems that I have looked, each of them is a very different attitude towards war. The most positive attitude towards it was the soldier in The Volunteer, as it was his longing dream to fight in the war, and he felt happy that he was dying as an ordinary soldier in the battle. The poem that conveyed the most negative attitude towards was in The Drum, as he showed how the drum reminded him of the horrific events that he saw in the war of soldiers dying and towns burning. In the Man He Killed however, he didn’t show much positive or negative attitude towards war. He felt no emotion for it when he went to war, but after killing a man right in front of him, he became very personal about it, and was horrified at the fact he ended someone’s life.
