This essay will compare and contrast the portrayal and warfare in four of the poems studied

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War poetry

A Comparattive Essay

Choose two poets that we have studied so far. Compare and contrast the portrayal of warfare in four of the poems studied.

This essay will compare and contrast the portrayal and warfare in four of the poems studied.

The first world war was portrayed as a glorious and credible cause, fighting war for your country was deemed as the duty of any credible man. Being able to represent your country on the battlefield was the greatest honour a man could have. Men were engulfed with the idea of being able to fight for their countries futures. Women would have to do everything they could to stop their husbands and sons from risking their lives by signing up for the war. At this time poetry was written to encourage men to go and fight, poets like jessie pope who wrote war poetry enforced this view.

JESSIE POPE                              WILFRED OWEN

WHO’S FOR THE                      DULCE ET DECORUM EST.

                                 GAME?                                                

                                     &                                                       &

                              THE CALL                                       DISABLED

These poems were written about (and at the same time as), World War I, between 1914 to 1918. In these barbaric four years- >killing spree< of 7 million men and leaving 17 million men injured, (physically-the war tactics resorted to the tortures of gas attacks, gun-shot wound, shell shock, starvation and exposure, to name a few...), the rest were scarred by memories never fading. World war one devastated lives and souls, time and space. But citizens back home had no way of knowing what war was capable of, without television or radio to communicate to them, they were only left to imagine the true horrors men were enduring. If people had reailsed the true extent and the horrors of what was actually happening, morale would have been severely detrimentally affected. These poems were created by the thoughts and feelings expressed by soldiers at battle.

Propaganda was partially to blame for the young lives that were stolen by the war, because it encouraged men to actively volunteer for the dream of taking the empire to victory and in return recieve the pride of serving their country. Propaganda was engineered to give citizens a false impression/ illusion of positivity about the events that were truely making history horrifically, and consistently sent a message of fortitude and unity to the enemy. Men were driven by promised finicial gain, status and the chance to travel, but under such pointless pain, suffering and horror that awaited them, ready to engulf them all in battle, in such conditions as; 48 hours bomboardment, being surrounded by dead bodies, acheing (mentally, physically and emotionally), foul infestation, and living in fear and horror was not worth the cost of a life. The war/government became so hungry for soldiers, it turned a blind eye to/denied the fact that younger men were lieing about their age so as they could join up...

To answer the essay question in its entirety, I will look at  four poems written by two poets with completely different intentions; one which encouraged men to fight for their countries and is patriotic, and the other showing the realities of war. The poems  I will look at are ‘’Who’s For The Game?’’, “The Call”, by Jessie Pope, and “Dulce Et Decorum Est” and “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen.  

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“Who’s for the Game” was written by Jessie Pope to encourage young men to fight.  This was basically propoganda; it exploited the idea that it was a young man’s duty to go and fight for their country.  This is apparent in the first two lines of the poem; the author makes us feel that war is not excruciating pain, but “just a game”...

“Who’s for the game, the biggest that’s played”, “The red crashing game of a fight”.  These opening lines make us feel that war is a big game, and fighting is just people playing games to enjoy ...

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