Your country is up to her neck in a fight,
And she’s looking and calling for you.”
This verse makes the reader think that it is his duty to sign up for the army. Also, in line two the poet is also indicating that joining the war is the only path to take.
The poet also uses the phrase:
“Who would much rather come back with a crutch
Than lie low and be out of the fun?”
This is another comparison. After playing in a football match it is part of the fun to have a graze or cut as a memory of the match. The poet is using the same type of meaning except for the match is a war and the cut is a crutch. This is just another example of the poet comparing war to a game. I do think that the comparisons are valid because the country needed young men to sign up for this army and this was the best way of encouraging them.
Next I will study “Peace and the Soldier” by Rupert Brooke. Peace is a Sonnet. This poem uses religion as persuasion.
“Now, God be thank Who has matched up with His hour,”
This is indicating that the current generation of young men has been chosen by God to fight for him in the War. The importance of this is augmented by the poet when he uses a capital “H” for “His”. The poet makes the war seem like a great time for this generation of young men. He is almost indicating that it is an honor that the current generation has been chosen by God. Line five indicates the war will save the world, if we win.
“Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,”
The poet despises the pre-war world; he believes it to be a dirty, filthy place full of hatred and no love. He believes that the war will lead the world into a golden age. In the second verse the poet says not to be afraid of wounds or even death because in the end it will all be worth it on the other side of the war.
“And the worst friend and enemy is but death.”
This poem gives no regard to the soldier at all. It says that it is the soldier’s duty to God to fight and die. The only objective is to finish the war, no matter how many lives it takes.
I have finished the older war poetry and will now consider some of the later war poetry. The later ware poems are more realistic and graphic, mainly because the poets are actually soldiers who are writing about war from a first hand experience. They will probably describe the war in more of a negative sense instead of the patriotic, jingoistic and propaganda poems written by the early poets to encourage young men to join up.
I will start of with “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen. This poem is about a young severely wounded soldier who sits helplessly in a wheelchair, thinking sadly and bitterly of his past. The poem begins with:
“He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,”
“He” is the soldier and could be waiting for dark for a number of reasons. He may not want to be seen by anyone, the dark would hide his mutilated body and people wouldn’t be able to judge him with a glance. He may be waiting for sleep, where he can no longer remember the war or the pain he is in, or, maybe he is bored and is waiting for the day to end. He can hear boys playing in the park having fun like her used to. The would be making him remember his past times as a boy, but, at the same time mocking him as he will never have that again. Before he joined the army he enjoyed drinking, having fun with his friends and relationships with women. He joined the army after a football game when he’d had a drink. Before the war, girls used to treat him with respect and as a potential partner, now they look at him in disgust:
“All of them touch him like some queer disease”
and pity. They are not interested in him at all. Even small conversation would be awkward.
“To-night he noticed the women’s eyes
Passed from him to strong men that were whole”.
He joined the war to make an impression of himself to other people. Everyone was proud of him when he left and he expected them to be proud of him when he returned, but they were not:
“Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer goal.
Only a soleman who brought him fruits
Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.”
People do not cheer him home because there is nothing to cheer about. They are grateful but saying anything would bring up his physical state. The man who thanked him would be the local vicar who was only there to make sure he hadn’t lost faith in God.
He remembers playing football enjoying a knee scrape of a blood smear down his leg. There he would be appreciated by people all around him and would be carried shoulder high. This is what he expected from the war but it basically ended his life.
In verse three where it says:
“And half his lifetime lapsed in a hot race
And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.”
the poet is using sexual imagery. The soldier will never be able to have a sexual relationship. The leap of purple spurted from his thigh is being compared to an ejaculation.
Now I will analyze “Base Details” by Siegfried Sassoon. Siegfried Sassoon wrote poems out of anger and protest. They were all aimed directly at people that didn’t know the awfulness of the war, the people that were “proud” of their soldiers and especially in this poem all the majors and men in the army that didn’t actually have to fight but just sit behind a desk all day and fill out forms thinking that they were doing their duty. “Base Details” was the nickname for men who worked at supply depots well away from the front line. The title has a second meaning which is in the word details. These men would wear a uniform, sit behind a desk and sort out the “details” of the war signing many lives away by sending them to the front line every day
“And speed glum heroes up the line of death.”
A typical “senior officer” is average height with a puffy and rounded face most probably with a moustache. He would always wear his uniform with pride and walk powerfully showing himself to be more important than others.
“Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,”
The poet uses “Guzzling and gulping” as alliteration. The senior officer would always be safe, he would always be happy and he would always have money. He may have even managed to convince himself that he was playing a main part in the war but deep down he would have been happy. He would have easy work, he would never be in any danger, he would be well paid and given respect by everyone because of his position. When the war is over and thousands had died and man had been injured and lost family members, he would be able to go home safely and die in the comfort of his bed with his family.
“I’d toddle safely home and die – in bed.”
This is just the type of person that Sassoon hated. Someone that he thought didn’t understand the war. Sassoon was mentally affected by the war, he hated the war. He saw the pain, the hatred and the suffering not the patriotic, religious approach that many other people had. What drove him mad was having to protest against something that could only be stopped by carrying it on. He wanted the war to stop, but, for that to happen many more people would die and much more fighting would have to be done. To end the war peacefully it would have to be won, so in a way he wanted what everyone else wanted, he just saw it from a different angle.
Now I will analyze “Does it matter?” by Siegfried Sassoon. This poem tries to make the reader understand how war affects a soldier individually. Ultimately the poem is stressing how easily those who have not fought in the war forget about the psychological damage that war can cause, which, at the time was known as “Shell Shock”. The poem starts with:
“Does it matter? – losing your legs? . . .”
Here Sassoon uses extreme sarcasm and irony to bring his point across. There is also alliteration “Losing your Legs” In the first line of each verse the injury gets worse. In verse 2:
“Does it matter? – loosing your sight? . . .
In verse 3:
“Do they matter? – those dreams from the pit? . . .
Sassoon believes this to be the worst injury from war, going insane.
In this poem Sassoon shows how he detests people who are patriotic and jingoistic towards the war. He understands from first hand experience how war can affect an individual and he is trying to help other people understand that.
I think Sassoon wrote this poem because of the uncaring society that did not consider the personal effects of war on an individual soldier. The older war poetry was about thinking of our country, which encourage patriotism and people signing up for the army. Sassoon’s poems consider individuals and shows what life is like for them.
