Using two poems compare the writers' attitudes to war, commenting on the method used to present these attitudes.

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War Poetry Assignment

Using two poems compare the writers’ attitudes to war, commenting on the method used to present these attitudes.

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:

   That there's some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England.  There shall be

   In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

   Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England's, breathing English air,

   Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

   A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

     Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

   And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

     In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Rupert Brooke

Anthem for Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
    -Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
   Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
  Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
  And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
   Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
  The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

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Wilfred Owen

        

Poetry written in the First World War falls into two categories. The first wave of poetry was written generally by intellectuals, men of a public school background. They were captivated by the glory and honour of war. The language used was often based around classics, with references to chivalry and patriotism. Rupert Brooke, a Cambridge student, never actually saw the war in its true form. He died in 1915 of septicaemia on a hospital ship, he like many others died believing in the war. This ...

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