“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 themselves, therefore this portrays the idea of war as being enjoyable, almost like a pastime. When people read this poem it makes them think subconsciously that war is enjoyable. Jessie Pope also promotes patrotism by saying that going to war is “giving your country a hand”. “Who’ll give his a country a hand” she appeals to their passion for fighting their country, over their fear of being killed. There was such an affinity with patriotism that by reading just this one line would make men join the war because they wanted to help their country. Jessie Pope also feels that war is like a big show and that the people staying at home are merely the audience, and not being part of this show, i.e. not playing a part in leading their country to victory. “Who wants to turn to himself in the show?” and “Who wants a seat in the stand”. Jessie Pope thought of war as a mindless riot and the only motivations for men going to war was to shoot someone and hold a gun, this is shown when she wrote “yet eagerly shoulders a gun”. The writer thinks that men would want to come back with a crutch, or some injury, as this would be their ‘souvenir’ from the war. She thinks that every man would want an injury as evidence of their bravery/suffering, rather than lying in the trenches and being out of the so-called ‘fun’. Jessie Pope also thinks that men who have returned unscathed from war didn’t have any fun; she thinks wars’ are all fun and games. “Who would much rather come back with a crutch than lie low and be out of the fun” “Your country is up to her neck in a fight, and she’s looking and calling for you”. This is a subliminal message that audience will rise to the challenge. Perhaps this is not an appropriate style of communication to describe war. The repetition of the word “who” followed by a question; she is questioning the audience and in the finnal two lines of the poem she tells us, who this “who” is. It is a direct appeal to you, the audience. She uses this direct appeal to the audience to emphasise in these two lines, the emphasis is on war being every man’s duty. She personifies the country as being feminine, as it is every man’s duty to protect or save their women. It is also therefore every man’s duty to protect their country; thus making them a hero. Throughout the poem she uses simple language, that everyone can understand, to appeal to a widespread audience. The poem is written so that the reader feels Jessie Pope is actually speaking to them, and therefore has an immediate effect. (As the poem was published in the Daily Mail, it would have been read by thousands of people). The tone of the poem is positive and seems like an idealistic adventure story, which is totally opposite to the realities of war. I feel that when men read this poem they would be by her patronising and threatening powers of persuasion. They would feel manipulated into feeling guilty for not “doing their duty”. The poem would probably have been read with a buoyant, upbeat tone of voice. I feel that the writer was naive about war and felt that she could explain war without actually experiencing it. As war progressed, the feeling of patriotism gradually diminished, as the death-toll was escalating daily, people came to realise that war was not all glorious and began to take in the realities. It was harder to comprehend the ideals of patriotism and duty when soldiers were returning with their true accounts of what had actually happened, and poetry was written to explain war and how it really is.
One of the soldiers who became a poet was Wilfred Owen, who died on the front line one week before the end of the First World War, on 8th November 1918, at the age of 20. “Dolce Et Decorum Est” was writtten to express his account of the events he actually witnessed and experienced. He talks about the harsh realities of war, this is illustrated in the opening lines, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge”. The use of similes serves to convey the graphic reality of the soldiers’ experiences. He goes on to talk about how committed men were, and also how brave they had to be to survive their horrific predicament. He talks about how men had to “walk asleep” and also how they had to “limp, bloodshod”. He also tells us how men went deaf as a result of the continual gas-shell explosions. According to him, the shells fell softly behind, because the soldiers were actually unable to hear the full impact, as they had become so used to them. “Men marched asleep, many had lost their boots, but limped on, bloodshod”, “all went lame, all went blind, drunk with fatigue, deaf even to the hoots of gas-shells dropping softly behind”. Repetition of the word “all” highlights the large number of men who died... He also speaks about how unexpectedly things happen, like the gas-shells exploding, and also how important it was to be constantly on guard. Wilfred Owen writes that a man was unable to put on his helmet and started “floundering”, and this word is usually used to describe fish who are out of water. He describes a man “drowning under a green sea” he uses the colour green because the air was full of gas. When reading this, the images conjured up are shocking and horrifying. Wilfred Owen also describes how he saw a man dying in front of him, because he had not put on his gas mask. He using strong verbs, such as “drowning” and “choking” to show the full impact of what is happening. “His hanging face, like a devil’s, sick of sin, if you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the forth-corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud”. These four lines describe the man who had just died – he uses words such as devils, sick of sin to say that the man’s face was worse than the devil’s sins, and he saw the blood come “gargling” to emphasise that it was coming out of the dying soldier’s throat. Wilfred uses an incurable disease, like cancer to describe the offensive nature of battle, to give the audience something to relate war to; I think that Wilfred Owen is trying to say that war is incurable once started, and nothing can be as bitter as cud, and therefore war is also the bitterest thing. The last four lines of his poem is apparently addressing Jessie Pope, as he wants to shame propagandists such as her; he feels that war is not glorious at all, quite the contrary. Do not tell children for some glory the old like that war is a glorious thing. Do not tell your children about war with such high enthusiasms, because it is nothing to be enthusiastic about. “My friend, you would not tell with high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie, Dolce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Moris’ the title links with the end of the poem, translating as “sweet and right to die for one’s country”
‘The Call’ written by Jessie Pope is very similar to another poem I have studied, because she uses the same persuasing and patronising tactics as ‘Who’s for the Game?’; She uses repetition of questions and quotation marks as some sort of rhythm for the poem, asking retorical questions to ‘laddies’- which has a direct appeal to young men. And repeats colliquial expressions throughout the poem. Questioning who may join the war.
‘Who’s for the trench- are you, my laddie?’
She has made the tone very bossy and seem like its rounding the readers up and putting them on the spot and pressuriing them for an answer. She compares the personalities and attitudes of soldiers- war is for anyone and everyone; ‘Who’s fretting to begin, Who’s going out to win? And who wants to save his own skin’
‘Who’s for the khaki suit- Are you, my laddie? Who longs to charge and shoot-‘ this makes war sound attractive and appealing, like it has something to offer you.
‘Who’ll earn the Empire’s thanks’ she is using bribery to persuade the audience, using temptation to menipulate them, and is insisting that there are so many reasons to join rather than not to join.
‘Disabled’, was written by Wilfred Owen after he escaped the claws of war.
‘He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark’ the poem is being told from someone elses perspective, but what is being said could have only been from Wilfred Owen’s past and what he is thinking or remembering. So this suggests that whomever is ‘talking’ is perhaps Wilfred but he doesn’t feel like he knows who he is, or is refusing to believe what has happened to him. He is waiting for the night time, to sleep, which translates as him having nothing to live for, which makes the reader feel pity for him.
‘Legless, sewn short at elbow.’
His legs were blown off by a bomb, and he aso lost his forearm, legless is a word we usually assosiate with being drunk. This makes the reader feel shocked and they think of what it must be like for him being so deprived of life. Although Wilfred was lucky to escape from death, he had evidence to prove he was a survivor of World War I and should think of himself as lucky to be alive.
‘Voices of boys rang saddening like a hym, Voices of play and pleasure after day’ this quote has lovely uses of simile and alliteration to explain how he hears memories speaking too him, because the memories are all he has left to blame for his losses.
‘Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him’ by using this emotional verb, he is giving sleep a personality, and ‘she’ lovingly takes these memories from him and lets him forget things he’d rather not relive in his mind.
‘About this time Town used to swing so gay, when glow lamps budded in the light blue trees,’
He is looking back to the good times, which the adjectives illistrate for the audience. ‘And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim- in the old times before he threw away his knees.’ He uses alliteration when he remembers how attractive the girls were. He is blaming himself for his disability, and contrasts to how depressed he is feeling. Although it does make the reader feel sorry for him, they realise that at least he has good memories aswell as bad.
‘Now he is old; his back will never brace, he lost his colour very far from here;’ the experiences of war and it resulting in his disability have aged him quickly as he has lost the colour to his face and his life; he cannot find anything to be positive about.
‘He asked to join. He didn’t have to beg; smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.’
The shortness of his sentences shows how he regrets it now, but at the time he was happy to join up, because he was willing to lie about his age, unaware of the things that would suffocate him at war.
‘To–night he noticed how the women’s eyes passed from him to the strong men that were whole. How cold and late it is! Why don’t they come and put him to bed? Why don’t they come?’ He is complaining and feels rejected by the women, because they aren’t interested in him as they were before. He complains that he is old before his time. The use of quotation marks make the reader think, because what is being said is being aimed directly at them- this makes it similar to Jessie Pope’s poems’, although, Jessie’s poems’ are very similar in their ‘prep-talk’ theme and encouraging tones , Wilfred Owen has written poems in very different situations, but in both of them his intention was to shame progadists such as Jessie Pope and send out the truth of war to the world.
I have learned that people have who have not experienced war should not encourage men to join up for example Jessie Pope shouldn’t explain something she has not experienced. When men such as Wilfred Owen came back and described their experiences of war this fickle feeling of patriotism was diminished for good. People were in disillusioned through this propaganda. Although the propaganda was a neccessity otherwise men would not have joined up for war.
I prefered the poem written by Wilfred Owen about his disability. This is because I reflected alot of my Dad’s accident into what Wilfred was going through, as it just links with how my Dad must have felt trying to adjust to a new lifestyle, and also because his Dad was in World War II. I like the way the words illistrated his environment and how he was feeling, and the way the stanzas were structured to the ends of sentences and how he used rhyming slightly randomly.
By Lauren Rickard 10B