English War Poems

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An Essay on War Poems

        In today’s contemporary society, war and everything referenced to it is seen as utterly negative. Philosophers, historians, novels and poems all portray the negativity of war; however the question to ask is whether or not anything good can come out of war. In this essay, I will be evaluating a number of poems to see to what extent they agree to the following statement; “War does terrible things to people, and people do terrible things in war”. To be able to give a proper response to this statement; I require analyzing each poem individually, providing proof of arguments against or for the statement. The poems which I have selected are in the accordance of how good arguments they provide.

        The first poem that I will analyze is Heroes. When first reading the title, words like patriotism, honor, loyalty, nationalism and devotion comes to mind. All of these words are very positive and give a positive aspect to the war; they also give the reader admiration behind the actions of the soldiers; however the poem itself portrays something quite to the contrary to that. Merely by reading the first stanza you relies which direction the poem is headed towards. The poem takes away the so called ideal image of a hero and replaces it with “a poor little chap with chubby cheeks and knees grinding each other”. It then goes on to describe the death of the protagonist and then states that “no cross or medal was put to his chest or to his name or to his family”. Thus the reader is left to bewilder over whether or not anything positive may come out of fighting a war. The aspect of the war which attracts a lot of people to join the army (heroism) doesn’t seem as attractive after reading this poem, as it is clear that the real heroes/brave men aren’t remembered.                Similarly another poem by Ruthveen Todd called These are the facts shows how soldiers aren’t remembered. The poem compares the fame and recognition of Art to Soldiers and comes to a conclusion that an art piece is worth much more as people remember it and recognize it; whilst soldiers that die in wars are just “nuisance, liable to stink, a breeding-ground for flies, a test tube for disease”. In conclusion, the two poems clearly show the negativity of the war and show how “war does terrible things to people”. The first impression evoked out of the title (heroes) is clearly eradicated after having read the poem and the second poem does nothing but to reinforce the first poems view. Thus one can clearly see that the so called “terrible thing” that these poems demonstrate is that the true heroes are never remembered, and thus the idea of joining for heroism doesn’t seem as attractive.

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        The second poem I will analyze to see to what extent it agrees with the statement is Truce by Paul Muldoon. Truce, as the title says is about peace/armistice and is one of the few poems in the booklet that provides a non-violent and peaceful aspect of the war. The poem describes a temporary ceasefire on a Christmas day in the First World War and thus just shows that war does not always do terrible things to people and people don’t always do terrible things in war. The allies and axis have a peaceful gathering to “exchange names and addresses”. This ...

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