How do the poets of the Pre and Posts 1900, evaluation their opinions of ‘Death’ through poetry?”
"How do the poets of the Pre and Posts 1900, evaluation their opinions of 'Death' through poetry?"
Now in the 21st century, death is something, which has imprisoned our newspapers and television screens, particularly now due to the very unfortunate suicide terrorist attack in New York of the twin World Trade Centres and the Pentagon, which affected lots of people. But everybody interprets death itself differently. I believe our personal beliefs play a significant part in this, because for some they believe that once you die; that's it, your body gradually decays; others believe that you are taken up to heaven and some even look forward to death because of their belief in reincarnation. But what most people thrive on is the fact that there will be loved ones on earth that will remember them and acknowledge them for all their accomplishments and disappointments.
In Pre and Post 1900, they too interpreted death differently, and many illustrated this through poetry. A famous Post 1900 poet is Wilfred Owen, who's poem 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', portrays his bitter angst towards the war and he laments the deaths of a whole generation of young men, who 'die as cattle' on the battlefields of Europe.
Wilfred Owen was born in Oswestry, Shopshire, and the son of a railway worker. He became under the influence of contemporary French poetry. He enlisted in 1915, becoming a second lieutenant of the Manchester regiment. He was wounded 3 times while he was in France and was diagnosed with shell shock and it was when he was sent to Craiglockhart Military Hospital in Edinburgh, did Owen develop many of his poetic techniques. But it was only through the influence of fellow soldier and poet Sienfried Sassoon, that he began capturing his vivid visions of the war in the form of poetry. Many would argue that it was while writing his war poems, that Owen felt most able to express his ideas on paper.
'Anthem for Doomed Youth', can be easily distinguished from many of his other works, as it is, in fact, a sonnet. Like all sonnets, this one has fourteen lines, divided up into two movements, with an initial, alternate line rhyme scheme used, changing to a more unusual sextet in the final movement. In this movement, the first and fourth lines rhyme, as do the second and third, and it ends on a couplet. This poem starts off at a quick pace, and then continues to decelerate throughout the poem, drawing to a slow sombre close; another, equally effective way to really drive home Owen's point to the poem in the final few lines. The slowing down of the rhythm is aided by syllabic variation along the lines, before settling on a steady, ten per line for the last couple of lines. But these technical formats alone did not make Owen's war poems as believable and empathetic as they actually are.
The personal feelings of his poems alone would not create the final result Owen wanted, it is his use of cunning poetic techniques that have made his poems believable and realistic enough for the reader. Through it all, he illustrates just how totally different things are in a "war-time" situation compared to a "peace-time" situation. 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', uses real physical objects, linked in with heavily descriptive words, as a different way of representing the action. These two techniques, both result in a similar effect, by creating a real atmosphere in the poems, whilst delivering a believable, yet dramatic account. The vivid imagery makes the reader think, whilst Owen's imagination can run wild. The first movement of 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' shows clearly how Owen intends to use some of his poetic techniques, even if they are not particularly tasteful in the context that they are being used in.
"What passing bells for those who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns,
Only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons."
Owen's distinct juxtaposition of the loud noises of war, with the quiet sombre feel of a funeral is one of the main effects in the poem, but the personification of the dead soldiers as cattle, as well as the alliterative and also onomatopoeic "stuttering rifles rapid rattle," seem somewhat inappropriate. All this personification is to portray how different death is dealt with and condoled on a ...
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"What passing bells for those who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns,
Only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons."
Owen's distinct juxtaposition of the loud noises of war, with the quiet sombre feel of a funeral is one of the main effects in the poem, but the personification of the dead soldiers as cattle, as well as the alliterative and also onomatopoeic "stuttering rifles rapid rattle," seem somewhat inappropriate. All this personification is to portray how different death is dealt with and condoled on a war-field compared to the respectfulness of normality. The normal everyday respectful things, which we carry out when someone dies, such as a church ceremony; a choir; the knall; the coffin; the candles and the prayers are all forgotten about and totally ignored, and are substituted by "the shrill demented choirs", and "the shuttering rifles rapid rattle". There is no beauty, no respect, or no dignity on the battlefield.
A lot of the religious aspects in all of his war poems may well stem from his past, and his time working in his local parish church, a time when religion was very important to him. Although by this stage, his views on religion may well have changed, his views on the ruthless murdering taking place in the fields were clearly very strong still.
The very title 'Anthem for Doomed Youth,' with anthems usually being associated with love and passion, is very deliberately ironic, a way Owen shows how ridiculous he really thought the war was. The fact that the 'cattle' he speaks of aren't actually getting proper burials, just horrific mass burials, if any, just shows how Owen's irony in giving them their only real burial, only highlights the huge, and, in Owen's opinion, crazy sacrifice that the soldiers gave.
In 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' Owen asks questions of the reader, in order to make them think more about the poem. The questions are deliberately easy to answer, and perhaps rhetorical, as Owen goes on to answer them in graphic detail, just to drive home how obviously stupid the war actually was. This more subtly used technique does exactly the same job, offering the reader to step into his, or any other soldier's shoes, just for a moment, in order to encounter the tragedy that he encountered.
"What passing bells who die as cattle?....
What candles may be held to speed them all?"
These questions may well be questions that he has already asked himself, and although he has found the answers to them, he feels the British public (to whom he is addressing the poem) have yet to come to terms with the horror that took place in those far-off lands.
'Anthem for Doomed Youth', shows a mature side to Owen's writing, a more complex form, but also a different way to make the reader think, as he shows his views with retrospect. Owen has deliberately distanced himself from the poem, giving a descriptive account, not a narrative, but more of a philosophical viewpoint. He uses clever metaphors and vivid sounds, which are enough to make any reader see his point of view to wards death in the Post 19th century.
It is the fluid, flexible language that really makes Owen's poems stand out, and it is the language alone that allows him to so easily adapt his works to just how he requires them in order to make his intended audience think. His subtle use of loud words, full of noise and body make 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' a visual poem, although this causes less imagery in the poem. We can still visualise the scenes captured in the poem and the way that death is described by imagining the sounds Owen describes at great length.
"The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires."
Owen offers a conclusion to the poem, a final moral to the story if you like. He drags the sonnet to a close, almost trailing off, but not, for the words are too important and too full of meaning for and reading to scan over. The funeral is over, and the rhetorical question that the poet asked at the beginning of the final stanza has been answered, and the noise has vanished. All is now quiet.
"And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds."
The long, heavy, alliterative 'd' sounds really do drag the ending on, and draw the poem to a deliberate close. I personally believe that Owen wants this to represent how he feels about death and that he believes that all the young men who horrifically 'died for their country' will just be forgotten about and will never get the acknowledgement or a proper send off that they so justly deserved.
Without Owen's extensive knowledge and use of various poetic techniques, and the context that he arranges them in, would I ever have been able to comprehend this.
The Pre 1900 poet John Donne also fascinated this topic. The poem that I am most concerned with is 'Death be not Proud'. Even though there was centuries between them, Wilfred Owen and John Donne were in more than one was alike. This is because they were both religious men who let it influence their poetry and they both worked in churches. The main difference is that while Donne's influences can be found in much modern poetry, especially that of T.S Eliot. Owen was under the influence of contemporary French poetry.
Donne was born in 1573 and grew up to be a very religious man who went to Oxford and Cambridge University. He eventually became Dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral in London. I believe that because of this religious background, it explains Donne's attitude towards death. With Owen, it was his cunning poetic techniques that portrayed what he thought of 'death' during the war, but with Donne it is the unusual feature of the language he uses, the unusual sentence construction, and the use of old fashion forms of verbs, such as; 'art'; 'canst'; 'thinkest'; 'dosk': 'swellest' and 'benot'. Donne opens his poem saying;
"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee,
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so."
Think this is a very sceptical view of death, as rather than fearing death, Donne instead challenges the power of death over mankind, while another Pre 1900 poet James Shirley writes about the powerfulness of death and how we will all fall victim to it. I think I would have to firstly agree with Shirley, because as a human, I fear death and respect its power. I believe that this would be the most unanimous choice on most human's minds. Although I would have to admit that I do admire Donne's enthusiasm in challenging the power of death and claiming that death is far from being "mighty and dreadful" and that it cannot kill us.
Without any reasoning to this, the whole aspect of what Donne is trying to portray would ridicule me, but Donne does indeed explain his reasoning;
"From Rest and Sleep, which but they pictures be
Much pleasure then from thee much more must flow;"
What Donne is trying to reassure us here is that death is just an extension of sleep, which provides us with everlasting rest for our bodies and freedom for our souls.
"Rest of their bones, and souls delivery!"
In believing this we are challenging the power of death. It is almost as if Donne wants us to laugh in the face of death and say, 'I have been waiting years to have a decent sleep, so do as you will!'
In contrast to Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', the young men who died metaphorically like "cattle" on the battlefields, probably did not even have the time or even the courage to challenge the power of death and comfort themselves by continuously telling themselves that if they died, that they would be receiving the luxury of a 'lie-in' every morning, which they so justly deserved for 'serving their country'.
In the final six lines, the poet provided us with examples of;
what death is a slave to;
"Thou'rt slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,"
how death can affect us;
"And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,"
and what death can be compared to;
"And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well".
John Donne's religious roots are more recognisable in his conclusion to 'Death be not Proud', where he has a very different and unorthodox attitude towards death. He concludes by asking why should death feel so proud and arrogant, when eventually it gives way to eternal life;
"One short sleep past. We wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die!"
James Shirley, like John Donne was a poet of the 17th century, born in 1596. He took orders in the Established Church, but was later converted to Catholicism. 'Death the Leveller', is the poem that I am interested in, because although Shirley and Donne were both men of the same century, they both had the same education, (they both went to Oxford and Cambridge University), and they were both men of religion, both men had different interpretations of 'death'.
While Donne challenged the power of death, Shirley accepts it and states quiet truly that in the end, we all must give way to death irrespective of our status or power:
"Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade."
Here Shirley uses symbolism to illustrate the difference between wealth and poverty and yet at the end of our lives, these do not matter because;
"There is no armour against fate:"
In the second stanza, Shirley further pursues his 'favoured by all hypothesis', by turning hid attention to the strong, physically fit soldiers, and warriors, who throughout the years may have been powerful, fearless men, "But their strong nerves at last must yield", and they "creep to death", because death holds sway over everybody and everything.
The final stanza of the poem prolongs with the idea of warfare, but here the poet reminds us that with death there is no such thing as victory or that you can be saved from death, because of your wonderful accomplishments through life;
"Then boast no more your mighty deeds".
Both victor and captive, conqueror and conquer, will end up touched by the 'icy hand' of death, and their heads too must "come/ To the cold tomb because the victor-victim bleeds."
What is evident from the conclusion to this last stanza is that like Donne, Shirley's religious roots are more recognisable. Because he says that after death, instead of the victorious person being remembered for a great accomplishment, the only people who will be remembered are those who were honest, upright, and just, during their lives.
"Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust".
I really like the attitude expressed in this poem by Shirley, because it appears to be of pure innocence, and it is probably similar to what you would expect. That regardless of whom or what we are, we are all prone and will all fall victims to the icy hand of death.
Thomas Hardy, like Wilfred Owen, was a poet of the post 1900's, who also wrote bout death in a war situation but with a total different significance.
The poem that I am concerned with is "The Man He Killed. Hardy writes about a soldier who questions himself about why he killed the enemy.
This poem could be described as an "Asops Fable". I think the effect Hardy wants his poem to have on us is to make us think of war, about why it takes place and about what we gain from- it if anything.
In the brief opening verse, war is summed up and that is kill or be killed. Hardy makes the point that if he and his enemy had met under different circumstances out of war they might well have developed a friendship and shared a drink in a bar- as friends do. Just like Owen's, Hardy describes how in a wartime situation the choice is totally different to a situation where there is peace. He must decide to kill his potential friend or be killed by him.
" I shot at him as he at me
And killed him in his place."
"The man he killed", which appears to be in the first person narrative, is particularly important in the central section, as the poet/soldier seems to be searching for reasons as to why he shot the man in the first place. Even though when signing up to be a soldier he knew what was to be expected of him, to shoot someone, he still doesn't feel right for shooting another innocent man. Hardy effectively portrays his guilt in the soldier's repetition in the following lines:
"I shot him dead because
Because he was my foe
Just so; my foe of course he was."
The soldier realises that the man that he has killed although an enemy to the country could well have been a friend. In these lines he tries to reassure himself that he had to kill as it is what war is all about- killing the enemy not befriending him. He wonders why all the men joined the war, probably not for love of their country but out of boredom or lack of employment.
Through the last lines of the poem we see the almost mental disintegration of the soldiers conscience as the horrific realisation of killing another man invades his mind and in an ironic twist he turns against his country and begins to lash out at those responsible for the wars, those responsible for drafting people into the army and those who kill out of fun.
The language Hardy uses throughout the play is quite simple, I believe this is due to the seriousness of the subject. War is not fun, it is a very serious matter and so the poet emphasises this through small, simple sentences. These sentences do, however, force us to think about the consequence of war, the thousands of lives lost and the sacredness of the human life. Also, it becomes clear at the end of the poem that war never ends. The visions stay with you and the worst thing is, they would continue to eat away at your conscience until you die.
Wilfred Owen used cunning poetic techniques. John Donne used unusual sentence structure. James Shirley used stanzas, with the last words in the first four lines of each stanza alternately rhyming. And Thomas Hardy used repetition and simple direct language throughout his poem. These are effectively and impressively, only some of the techniques used by the poets, to have expressed one of the most avoided topics-'death'. All these poets, Pre and post 1900's, have portrayed, quite comfortably through their poems, death and the consequences of believing that humans have the power to control who dies and who lives.
GCSE English Coursework 2001
Zahra Lamsiah 12c
