‘Peace’ written by Rupert Brooke is about the glory of war. The poem was also written in 1914. The poet, Rupert Brooke, belonged to the upper class, he went to a public school and then a university. He tries to state that the people that go to war and fight for their country are doing a good thing. Brooke is thought to write good poetry though I do not like it. He says that war is as high as high and it is the best thing you can do for your country to die. ‘God be thanked’ for this opportunity; he starts to talk about going to heaven to get away from all the illness and the grief of ordinary life. He says that the world is turning bitter cold and evil. War will give young men a chance ‘To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping! His poems may not be particularly long, but they penetrate straight to the point, of dirty ordinary life and how everyone wants to leap out of it and be cleansed therefore by fighting before going to heaven. He talks about leaving all the bad things behind ‘leave the sick hearts’ this are a good example of that. ‘Where there’s no ill’, no grief, but sleep has mending I find that this line is talking about heaven and how you can escape from all of this evil and that it will be amazing in heaven. This appeals to me as a very strong and deep poem as many of his and others are.
Peace is a number of sonnets Brooke wrote about war since sonnets are usually used to praise a loved one, could it be that he loved war? We’ll never know what his poetry would have become, for he never actually fought he died of blood poisoning on his way to Gallipolis; its sad that he died before fighting as he would have probably wrote more war poetry, who knows. But at least he was not faced with all the evil of the fighting. Very different poetry came from men who did fight in the war. Sassoon is probably the most bitter about the way men were regarded
‘The General’ is a very short but rather arrogant poem. In this poem Sassoon writes in a very obvious way about how he felt about the Generals who gave the orders, from behind the front line. I think Sassoon an ordinary soldier, was bitter and resentful of the officers who gave the orders although they had little idea of what war was really like in the trenches. I think Sassoon probably blamed them for many of the tragic deaths that occurred. Sassoon’s resentment is very apparent in the lines ‘and were cursing his staff for incompetent swine’ together with the line ‘but he did for them both by his plan of attack’ This line proves that many soldiers were led to believe that it was the Generals staff who were to blame for the badly co-ordinated attacks. Sassoon was fast to spot this and realised that it was not the staff, it was the General himself who was to blame.
The General comes across as a cheery bloke hence ‘Good morning good morning’ He has an air of arrogance many of the soldiers he smiled at and joked with, he sent to the front line knowing in his heart they would probably end up dead. Yet he carried on and on sending others to perish, but if you pay close attention to the fact that you never hear of him going! He strikes me as somewhat of a heartless man who thought little of the consequences of his actions. Sassoon is obviously a bitter and resentful man who witnessed the horror of war somewhat differently to the General. The General was considered to be a brave man, but had little feelings for his men ‘now the soldiers he smiled at most of them dead’ these men were not machines they had feelings of their own yet they died in the thousands on the order of the General. Boys not much older than myself were killed. It is a shame the General did not stop and think about some of this. Wilfred Owen is a good war poet who also faced the reality and destruction of war and he mingled in with all of the action. This is proven because while he was in France he was wounded three times and diagnosed with shell shock so he obviously was deeply involved. Siegfried Sassoon was a great influence and inspiration to Owen when they met at Craiglockhart hospital. He did affect a lot of Owens work, which was a good thing.
‘Exposure’ by Wilfred Owen is a poem about being in the trenches during the winter ‘worried by silence’ makes the men weary as it always Tremendously noisy but nothing happens. Wilfred Owen is writing from his own occurrences and experiences and views. Everything is true fact not fiction, the complete opposite to Jessie pope. Owen is truly conveying the reality of war. He uses all of the senses, cold, smell; touch He says that the longer they are there, the more the misery grows. There are frequent outbreaks of shooting and heavy shelling. It all gives you a crystal clear picture that they are cold, freezing, hungry. Owen sees the elements as the enemy, so he personifies the wind, the snow which ‘comes finguring’, even the ‘brambles’ of barbed wire. And they all just think of past times, as where they are is a complete living hell. This is a very deep and serious poem and of course it is all true.
The poem ‘Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen is a contrast of peace and war; the disabled man explains what has happened in the year since everyone had urged him to go off to fight. When he came back, nobody wanted to know him nobody much cared. He wonders why he joined the Army. And realized he had tried to impress people as they told him he would do well in the Army. One reason he ‘signed his life away’ was because his dear Meg would be pleased; look where that got him.
This is a very depressing and deep poem. It goes into great detail he explains how he used to touch women and to feel woman and now how they see him as an ill freak, he feels like a sideshow, as he has lost his legs. He has lost his colour, his future ‘just as he lost his blood’. He feels that he ‘poured his life away’ down endless shell holes; he wonders what he has sacrificed to end up like this. Nothing. Rather different to what Jessie Pope said. He loved his youth and when this tragedy happened he realises a massive massive part of him is now missing He remembers the town and his surroundings being so gay and happy and how the war has destroyed all this and changed his life around, and that it is now a living hell. Owen says that one time he saw blood down his leg from a football injury, he thinks how that was insignificance. The reality hits him, now he has no leg. ‘A leap of purple spurted from his thigh’
He had thoughts of all the swords and other weaponry that he would receive in the army. He had great images of wearing the smart uniform and making every one proud. Smiling honoured as they signed his life away. He said that before he ever even gave the Germans a thought and he certainly didn’t have any thing against them. He thought his football days was great, the buzz he got from the cheering. He thought that people would cheer for him in the army; but the reality, a year on is that he is legless, an invalid dependant on others ‘why don’t they come?’ Wanted to be a hero in the army. The sad reality was that he got more of a cheer from scoring a goal in a football match, than the young men who gave their lives for their country. “Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer goal” Owen was an angry poet who did all he could to stop men from enlisting. Owen seemed to me to write about how he hated the army. And how he hated the disastrous effects that the war brought to many young and innocent men.
In Sassoon’s poem ‘The Hero’ it conveys a bitter picture of the mothers view of their dead sons. Controlled with the reality the poem starts of with a mother receiving a letter clearly stating that, her dear son has died in action. However he did not really die bravely and heroically, we learnt that he was a coward who had tried to get sent home ‘How he’d to get sent home’ The brother officer lied about her son to make the old widow feel better ‘That lonely woman with white hair’ as it said in the last paragraph ‘Jack fell as he’d have wished’ She knows her son was so brave; ‘The Colonel writes so nicely’ he is very graphic an targeted at you Sassoon contrasts what the mother is led to believe from the colonels letter, with the truth in the brother officers thoughts. This was a very regular occurrence to happen to a mother that lost her son and many mothers got the same letter as someone else, which must have been rather upsetting to later find out. This poem is a combination of emotion, pride, sadness, bitterness and loneliness. Another well known one of Owens is ‘Anthem of doomed youth’ which concentrates on mainly the horror of war, and Especially the death of young men on the front line. This poem is a traditional which is not surprising considering the education and experience the poet Siegfried Sassoon had over this author Wilfred Owen. The first four lines of the poem emphasize the contrast between the battlefields and home life ‘what passing bells for these who die as cattle’ this reminded him of the English countryside and the innocence of life in peacetime. The main subject is of a funeral. The poem asks if there will be a funeral at all. What passing bells will ring for the dead? None just the drone of the rifle and machine gun fire and the screaming and whimpering of the men who are in deep agony. What funeral pal will there be? There wont be know family relatives just maybe friends’ because the family will be at home worrying and waiting. But your friends will be there, as they’ll probably be lying there with you in the trench or shell hole. Owen is saying that everyone deserves a funeral especially all these war heroes that have given up their life. There is no dignity here even in death.
In the long and tedious four years that the Great War lasted, 1914-1918, the world saw some very extreme poetry. There were three main aspects of poetry; recruitment poems for example Jessie Popes who’s for the game and some very heroic poetry such as brooks ‘peace’ and along with reality poems, such as exposure and disabled by Wilfred Owen. The Great War affected many people’s families and lives, and to me this seems that all the Great War poets found this to convey their feelings and emotions to the world.
