Rupert Brooke goes to great lengths to convey the meaning of serving and protecting his motherland, even until death, which is justified because of his love and gratitude for his country. Even if his ashes, his ‘richer earth’, were to lie in a land distant from his beloved England, his love would still be ‘for ever’. This is further stressed when he compares his relationship as if it were a bond between mother and child. The words ‘bore, shaped, made aware’ gives us the image of a mother, lovingly caring and nurturing her child. His purpose of fighting for his country is also to protect the beauty, compassion and freedom he enjoyed while growing up there, indicated by the words ‘her flowers to love, her ways to roam’.
Wilfred Owen does the exact opposite by highlighting the sense of hopelessness, misery and violence that is associated with war through the use of negative and dark words. The soldiers are compared to ‘cattle’ that are slaughtered, indicating that they have no other purpose that to die. The comparison also suggests that the soldiers were killed numerously, mercilessly and systematically. He uses of crude words to convey the complete absence of love or honour on the battlefield and numerous contradictions to invoke the feelings of pity in the reader; instead of ‘passing-bells’ there are only ‘guns’ and ‘stuttering rifles’. The words ‘monstrous anger’ refers to the fierceness and violence of war. The word ‘monstrous’ also suggests that the soldier’s task is immense, almost impossible to do, which emphasizes the feeling of hopelessness of war. The hopeless sense is again highlighted when the poet refers to the gunshots as ‘stuttering’. This means that there are bullets whizzing everywhere, and chances are most of the men would have been hit. The ‘r’s in rifles rapid rattle indicate the sounds of gunshots; again appealing to the reader’s senses to highlight the bleak conditions in the battlefield which are terrible and ugly.
In Brooke’s poem, the soldier views war and his sacrifice as an honourable, proud and noble deed. He is proud to be English, proud to be fighting for her, and proud of her ways. He is willing to die to protect her and thinks that this is an extremely honourable act to do. He admires England in every aspect. This is shown when he uses all the four elements to describe her; ‘A body of England’ which refers to earth, ‘breathing English air’ which refers to air, ‘Washed by rivers’ which refers to water and ‘blest by suns of home’ which refers to fire. His sense of pride and honour is so strong that he does not dwell on the gloom and misery that is associated with war at all, instead views it through rose-tinted glasses and does not realise the true horrors.
Owen however, is obsessed with the cruelty, indignity and senseless wasting of their lives. The use of the word ‘patter’ refers to the bullets hitting a soldier’s body. It gives the effect of raindrops hitting a window, which when used to describe how a body is inflicted with bullets paints a very cruel and inhumane picture. When he writes ‘No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells’ he says that the dead are forgotten; they are neither mourned nor prayed for. This is because the dead are so many that it would take too much effort to bother to tend to them. The only things to mark their deaths are the ‘choirs’, yet there are not ordinary choirs but ‘shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells’. It is as if death has become the norm for them; it does not receive much attention or sympathy. The words ‘shrill and wailing’ seem to suggest that even in their deathbeds, there is no peace. The ‘bugles calling for them from sad shires’ seem to be calling in vain, because the soldiers are all dead. Again, this highlights the hopelessness and uselessness of war. The soldier’s deaths are, if anything, indignant and are not in the least bit honourable. There is no hero’s worship and the dead are ignored. There is no pride, no honour and still the war carries on.
In ‘The Soldier’, Brooke feels content to die for his motherland to protect the people left behind, hoping that his efforts will protect them from the enemy. Even if his contributions were minute, shown by the comparison of just a single ‘pulse’ to an ‘eternal mind’, he is happy to ‘give somewhere back the thoughts England given’, meaning to repay his beloved homeland by protecting her for all that she has provided him with. He values England and wishes to preserve her ‘laughter’, ‘friends’ and ‘gentleness’ for the future. This contentment and happiness is clearly shown by the words ‘peace’ and ‘heaven’, and even if he is dead, he can still rest in peace as he has loyally served his country.
In Owen’s poem, he writes about the effects of so many casualties of war and how it ironically destroys the homes the soldiers died to protect. The numerous deaths caused by war ravages even the younger generations left behind, shown by the ‘candles’ which are ‘not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes’, which refers to their tears and the ‘pallor of girl’s brows’ which is the paleness of the girls. That is all they have to mourn the dead soldiers, and are plagued with the sadness of the death of a loved-one. The line ‘And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds’ says that they are slowly losing hope against the darkness, which signifies their sorrow and misery. Here, he says that the youth are supposed to be the hope for the future but are doomed because of the past, which is ironic because so many soldiers wasted their lives hoping to protect these children.
Both Brooke’s and Owen’s poems have consistent rhyme schemes where the first and third lines and the second and fourth lines rhyme, which later changes where the first and fourth lines, the second and fifth and the third and sixth lines rhyme. The change occurs in the second stanzas which represents a break in thought. In Brooke’s it is a change of view which he sees himself; in the first stanza he is contemplating death as a possibility, but in the second stanza he accepts death as if it has already happened, suggested by the words ‘all evil shed away’. In Owen’s poem, this break is when the reader is taken from the observer’s point of view in the battlefield to soldier’s home. This is because the poet does not talk about the about the sights and sounds of the battlefield anymore, instead he talks about the boys and girls which would be at home.
The rhyme schemes, although similar, are used to different effects. In Brooke’s poem, the consistent rhyme scheme is to show the peacefulness of thought that he has. In Owen’s however, the consistency is used to produce an opposite effect. The calmness achieved by the consistency only serves to suggest the mood which is heartless, without emotion, cold, cruel, and that like of a machine. Brooke’s poem has a smooth, clear flow in rhythm. This suits the smooth tranquil thoughts that reflect the mood invoked by the poem. In ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, the rhythm is broken and unsteady; it serves to create an impression on the reader of how grave and miserable war is.
Although both poets write about the same topic, which is war, they both have different views and attitudes towards it. Perhaps this is because of their different experiences with war. Brooke is like a new soldier, naïve and yet to experience its horrors, contemplating only on his view on war. Owen writes as if he has just witnessed the worst, as he was involved with the uglier and bloodier part of the war. He also reveals the effects both on and off the battlefield. Both authors have distinctly different impressions of war because of their different experiences, but ultimately, both describe the subject, although from totally opposite sides.