"It has been said that all war poetry is violent and depressing. By looking at poems before and after 1900 see if you agree or disagree with this view." Use at least 2 poems by the same author

"It has been said that all war poetry is violent and depressing. By looking at poems before and after 1900 see if you agree or disagree with this view." Use at least 2 poems by the same author In this essay I will be analyzing the title question and find out what my view is on the opinion that all war poetry is violent and depressing. I will be studying two poems by William Shakespeare and two poems by Wilfred Owen; this will incorporate pre-1900 poetry and post-1900 poetry in my essay by using these two poets. I will also add in any quotes from other war poetry, which I feel is relevant to this essay. Firstly, I will analyze the two poems by Shakespeare, which I have chosen, Henry V at the siege of Harfleur and Before Agincourt. The first Shakespeare poem I will be studying is Henry V at the siege of Harfleur. This poem is a speech made by Henry V during the battle of Harfleur. It is a speech, which is meant to spur the troops to victory, and also it is a very patriotic poem. The poem is all about making England and fathers proud so the king is trying to convince the army not to be scared; what do the soldiers have to be scared about? Death, although it is not talked about so the violent part of war is avoided. The poem/speech is spontaneous and frantic as it is an attempt to rally the troops for a final push. The poem implies that the battle is in course because in the

  • Word count: 1455
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Choose three contrasting poems that you feel show the difference in the attitudes and experiences of those people who were part of World War One. Analyse them in relation to how they demonstrate the experiences and feelings towards war at the time.

Choose three contrasting poems that you feel show the difference in the attitudes and experiences of those people who were part of World War One. Analyse them in relation to how they demonstrate the experiences and feelings towards war at the time. The three poets that I am choosing to write about are, Wilfred Owen, Thomas Hardy, and Rupert Brooke. The reason that the three poems contrast is the tone and content of the poem. Rupert Brooke had idealistic views of the war; his poems were seen as moral support for the soldiers. Siegfried Sassoon's poems showed the realistic view of the war, the brutal truth. Thomas Hardy is more unique than the other two writers he wrote about idealistic views, but he never actually went to war, he never had the first hand knowledge that the other two poets had, his poetry was speculation and imagination. In my essay I will analyse a poem from each poet and try to demonstrate the feelings, emotions and experiences towards war. Siegfried Sassoon's 'Suicide in the Trenches' is written realistically in its views of the war. Sassoon had been born into English aristocracy and privilege and was educated in England's finest universities. When WWI broke out, Sassoon enlisted in the army and distinguished himself as an officer. Within a short time, however, his attitude about the war changed as a result of the brutality he witnessed in the

  • Word count: 1983
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Tennyson - War Poetry

War Poetry Coursework, By Matthew Stronge. War Poetry is written to express a writers feelings towards war in general. Some writers express total glorification of the war, while others convey the inanity of confrontation. One of the poems that I have studied "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Tennyson is a poem that tells of a 19th century battle between the British and the Russians during the Crimean War in Russia. During this war, Great Britain, France, and Turkey were fighting against Russia. This battle was particularly disturbing because the lightly armored British, obviously misled, charges a line of heavily armed Russian artillery unit. The poem describes how many soldiers died due to a mistake made by a commander, a message was perceived incorrectly, and many died. They all charged straight into the centre of the Russian artillery unit, and two thirds of them were massacred in minutes. The remaining soldiers managed to realize the mistake and retreat quickly. The poem seems to describe the heroism and patriotism of the soldiers... Although many died because of an obtuse mistake. Repetition is an important element of poetry. "Rode the six hundred," shows the importance of the soldiers as a unit (stanza 1). A small group of soldiers like these must be elite. Only six hundred men of the British army were lucky enough to be part of this special force. "Cannon

  • Word count: 2016
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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What do you understand by the term “Total war”?

What do you understand by the term "Total war"? Total war is a term that till the 20th century had never been in use or practiced. Total War is the total engagement of a nation's economic, social, cultural, and political capital in the war. Till world war one wars had only occurred on the battlefields. Wars were only head to head collisions of bloodshed and casualties. Wars had till then never involved people at home. The last century of the millennium was to change that. 'Total war was the organization or mobilization of all sectors of society to support the war efforts. As a result of this mobilization of the civilian population, the term 'home front' came to be used to describe the domestic scene.' World war one involved both the war front, but also, for the first time, the home front. All elements of this total war are connected. The First World War was fought using enormous amounts of materials including weaponry, ammunition and transport vehicles, but also millions of men. This in turn led to involvement on the civilian population on the home front. It was no longer possible to relay on supplies. Further mass production of equipment, weapons, ammunition, transport and food was necessary to continue the military struggle. A problem occurred when insufficient amounts of men where present to continue to work. Both in England and in Germany, men where in the fronts and

  • Word count: 1128
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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How far does the poetry of Wilfred Owen break new ground in the tradition of war poetry?

How far does the poetry of Wilfred Owen break new ground in the tradition of war poetry? Before the First World War, war poetry was written by non-combatants, whether it was for or against war. Wilfred Owen was one of the first to break this tradition. He went to war so he was writing from experience. A lot of soldiers before the First World War were illiterate, so they could not convey their emotions in poetry. World War One was the first time when literate men joined up. Their experiences in the trenches were expressed in their anti-war poetry. Wilfred Owen was in France when war broke out, so he returned to England and volunteered to be an army officer. He was back in France at the end of 1916 in the Somme sector. In spring 1917, he took part in the attack on the Hindenberg Line, near St. Quentin. A huge shell burst near him, giving him shell shock. He wrote a letter to his mother in May 1917, which said, "Suffer dishonour and disgrace, but never resort to arms. Be bullied, be outraged, be killed, but do not kill". The war had obviously had a severe impact on him. He was treated for shell shock at Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh where he wrote poems for therapy. Craiglockhart was a hospital for soldiers with war trauma. It was there, in August 1917, that he met Sassoon, a much more distinguished and renowned poet, who encouraged him to write poems. Many men died in

  • Word count: 1798
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"A short story should stimulate the imagination and hold the reader in suspense." Consider this statement with detailed reference to at least two of the stories in the anthology.

"A short story should stimulate the imagination and hold the reader in suspense." Consider this statement with detailed reference to at least two of the stories in the anthology. For this assignment I will be looking at three of Ambrose Bierce's short stories, 'An Arrest', 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' and 'The Affair at Coulters Notch'. In 'An Arrest' a man escapes from jail only to be captured and taken back to his cell by a ghost, In 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge', a man is captured and is waiting to be hung on a bridge and as he is dying he imagines himself escaping only to die as he runs to embrace his wife. 'The Affair at Coulters Notch' is about a Southerner fighting for the North in the Civil War, the General of his army doesn't like him and orders him to fire a gun at the enemy, but the target happens to be his own home and Coulter fires the gun without question and kills his family. All three stories are about death and two of them are about the American Civil war. Bierce experienced a lot of unhappiness in his own personal life and may be why many of his stories are about death and bloodshed. 'An Arrest' is typical of Bierce's work in its approach, subject matter and brevity. Bierce also fought in the civil war himself so he knows what the war was like and he is clearly against the idea of war in his writing. I think that the story with the best

  • Word count: 1414
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"Compare and contrast the poems 'Dulce et Decorumest' by Wilfred Owen and 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke, onthe theme of war".

"Compare and contrast the poems 'Dulce et Decorum est' by Wilfred Owen and 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke, on the theme of war". In this assignment I will try to show the different ways in which each poet viewed his own war experiences and how it was shared through their poetry. The poems are very different and it is necessary to know a little about each author in order to understand why the poetic styles are so different. Many things can shape how people view the same event, social background, class, education, and associates are among the influences that can alter a person's view. In the case of Owen and Brooke, all these things and more seem to have affected how each man chose to portray events and experiences of the First World War. Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born in 1893 in Oswestry, Shropshire. He was educated Birkenhead Institute and Shrewsbury Technical College. From an early age he had a passion for poetry and he counted Keats and Shelley among his early influences. From 1913 to 1915 he was a language tutor in France, he had no great desire to join the army, but did so on 21st October 1915 because of peer pressure and propaganda. The moral pressure to enlist was intense; slogans such as 'Are YOU in this?' 'Fight for Freedom with the Strength of Free Men' and a badly misused quote from Shakespeare "Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once" -

  • Word count: 1390
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"Discuss how two or three writers treat the subject of war."

"Discuss how two or three writers treat the subject of war." I am going to discuss how Wilfred Owen, Siegfred Sassoon and Isaac Rosenberg treat the subject of war. I have studied Rosenberg's 'Break of Day in the Trenches.' This title suggests a calm atmosphere as the break of day is very relaxing and peaceful the beginning of a new day. The whole poem has a calm and peaceful feel to it and the poet achieves this by using assonance e.g. "sleeping green" and soft consonants such as "sympathies." Even though the poem has a calm atmosphere, the message that the poet wants to say in the poem is about anger and object to war. The poet comments on the devastating effects war has on the earth and the freedom that it takes away form men. The poem opens describing the "darkness" crumbling "away" gives the effect of a bleak atmosphere as the darkness only disappears bit by bit and not gradually altogether. The use of "crumbling" conveys an image of there always being a bit of darkness that has not fully crumbled away. Maybe this is because Rosenberg wanted to give war an image of being always dark and gloomy. The poet also makes "Time" a pronoun and describes it being "druid." He may have used this technique to make war seem if it had made men dreary and the sense of time has gone back to the ancient days when life was dull and restricted. The word "druid" conveys an impression of

  • Word count: 4018
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"Does it Matter?"- Siegfried Sassoon

"Does it Matter?"- Siegfried Sassoon Questions . The terrible injuries are, 'losing your legs', which means that in war soldiers have had their legs blown away; 'losing your sight', which means soldiers have become blind as a result of war, and finally 'those dreams from the pit', which means that soldiers still have, and always possibly will have for the rest of their lives, the memories of war as hell, and also dreams about it. They will therefore remember the conditions they've been in when at war. 2. Sassoon means, when he uses sarcasm to sharpen effects, such as 'There's such splendid work for the blind', that war is really terrifying and after it can affect soldiers' lives very seriously, such as making them blind, turning them disabled, and even killing them. He's sending out a message that once blind, you can never get your original life back like it was before, when you could see the world. He is also stating that the blind cannot do things that people who aren't blind can, such as work; Sassoon is feeling sorry for them, as he knows it wasn't their fault for choosing to go to war, and that they were wrongly persuaded to go. Other sarcasm states that it does not matter to get injured in war; the repetition of 'Does it matter?' tells us exactly this. 3. I think the most striking verse is the third and final verse, as it contains the most sarcasm. The verse tells us

  • Word count: 567
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen - creitical review

Daniel Stern - English - War Poems "Dulce et Decorum Est" was written by Wilfred Owen during the First World War . Owen explains the problems and difficulties the soldiers had to face each day. The poet describes vividly yet honestly, what trench warfare was like. The poem begins with Owen explaining the feelings of the soldiers whilst they march towards the enemy. The soldiers are scared and frightened due to the lack of hope as they do not know when the terrible war will end. The dreadful conditions have a major impact on the young men and as a result, they look frail and elderly. Furthermore, diseases and general unhappiness were common among the fighters. This was because of the lack of food, adequate shelter and sanitation. However, they most importantly wanted to see their families again. The soldiers were advancing forward when the captain, Wilfred Owen, ordered the soldiers to run from "green sea" which is approaching them and put on their gas masks. All the soldiers instantly have to put on their gas masks, which causes a sudden rush of "fumbling/stumbling" and, unfortunately, "drowning." The third stanza, which is only two lines, emphasises the significant impact this incident had on the poet .The stanza conveys a powerful image in which the man dies, as he was too late in putting on his gas mask. In the final stanza, Owen is angry with the generals and

  • Word count: 1585
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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