‘For the Fallen’ is an elegy. Being an elegy during the war, you might have been mistaken for thinking that it is not a very glorious poem. But this poem celebrates the death of the soldiers and is celebrating the work that they have done for their country. This poem gives a personification of England and describes the soldiers when they were young. This poem constantly uses alliteration throughout. ‘They fell with their faces to the foe’ is a good example. The poet uses alliteration to speed up the poem at times. This, in turn, can have a greater impact on the reader.
‘The Soldier’ has two versus to this poem. The first verse has eight lines and is called an octet; the second verse has six lines and is called a sestet. Therefore, this poem is a sonnet. It has a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFGEFG. This gives the poem a regular flow and a constant beat. This is much easier for the reader to understand.
‘Fall In’ is another patriotic poem yet again and this is shown throughout the poem. This poem has four versus and the rhyme scheme is ABABCDCDEFEFGHGH and continues like this until the end of the poem. This rhyme scheme has a regular and beat which makes the every second line of the poem stand out to the reader.
The next poem we studied was ‘Rendezvous’ written by Alan Seeger and it is quite a dull poem about death. This poem also is a personification, like ‘For the Fallen’. Only this time, the personification is of death. It, yet again, has a constant rhyme scheme. Only this time, it is very effective. Because the poem is a dull poem, the constant beat keeps the reader interested in the main topic of the poem.
You could say, if you wish, that most of the pre-war poems we have studied are very similar. They are patriotic and they promote the war. They also don’t tell you what the war is ‘really’ like.
As the war progressed, the hideousness of the war became more apparent. With poets like Sasson being produced, people could see the war for what it really was. There were a number of poets that were produced during these late stages of the war and they showed people what was really happening, through their poems.
‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ is a very anti-heroic poem written by Wilfred Owen. He, in his poems, used a lot of similes and metaphors. He also uses alliteration. These all give a dramatic impact for the reader. This poem is a sonnet and has the ‘usual’ rhyme scheme, but unlike the other sonnets I have mentioned (‘The Soldier’) this sonnet ends in a rhyming couplet. This creates impact to the poem.
‘Futility’ is a poem which seems to give the impression that life is very pointless. It has an irregular rhyme scheme that has no constant beat.
‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is a very anti-heroic war poem. It is questioning an old lie – Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori, which simply means it is sweet and fitting to die for your country. Owen is calling this a lie. This poem is a prime example of Owen’s use of metaphors and similes. It even starts using a metaphor, which is ‘Bent double, like old beggars under sacks’.
‘The Hero’ is a poem by Siegfried Sasson. Sasson has a very bitter tone to his poems and his poems are always angry with someone. ‘The Hero’ is a poem about a mother receiving the bad news that her son is dead. This poem has an AABBBCCDEDEFF rhyme scheme. In the second verse, the rhyme scheme has changed. This is because Sasson wanted a change of meaning in the poem.
‘Suicide in the Trenches’ has a regular and constant rhyme scheme. Every two lines are a rhyming couplet. This keeps the flow of the poem constant. It is criticizing the British public who cheer for the soldiers, just as they are about to go to war, but the public themselves, do not know what the soldiers are about to face. It is a very bitter poem.
‘They’ is another very bitter poem written by Sasson. This time, Sasson is criticizing the church for making the war sound like a crusade. The poem uses a rhyme scheme of ABABCCDEDEFF. It has two versus and both end in a rhyming couplet. This is used for impact and emphasis.
