Compare and Contrast 'The Happy Warrior' by William Wordsworth with 'The Happy Warrior' by Herbert Read.
Suzi Bowen
Compare and Contrast ‘The Happy Warrior’
by William Wordsworth with ‘The Happy Warrior’ by Herbert Read.
Although these two war poems both have the same name, the two poets have very different ideas and the poems are extremely different. Wordsworth and Read have managed to write two exceedingly different war poems both with the same name, yet with almost opposite ideas.
William Wordsworth had written a long and detailed description on his view of an ideal soldier and all the characteristics he would have. Although this poem is long, it is not that complicated and the point Wordsworth is making is quite obvious. Herbert Read, however, has written a very short poem, yet it is incredibly complicated and could be interpreted in many different ways.
One way, and maybe the more obvious way, in which you could interpret it, is that the title is in fact sarcastic and you can’t actually have a ‘happy warrior’. I say this because the language used in the poem is the complete opposite of happy. In the poem, there are words and phrases such as “painful sobs”, “strain’d hands clench an ice cold rifle”, “aching jaws grip a hot parch’d tongue”, “Bloody saliva Dribbles down his shapeless jacket” and “I saw him stab, and stab again.” How can the poem be describing a ‘happy warrior’ if there is so much pain and misery portrayed? To me, the poem is a description of what the war is really like, and the title is actually being sarcastic.
