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

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 is why his poem is upbeat and pro war and was cleverly used as propaganda. The true importance of the poem at the time was shown by the fact that the poem was read in St. Paul's cathedral in a sermon about preparing the nation for war. Such was the impact it had on the people listening; that the next day it was printed in The Times. The basic, overall purpose of ‘The Soldier’ was to encourage English people to sign up to fight in the war. It focused on the apparent aspects, experiences and events relating to death; describing them in a positive way. The general public in Britain were blissfully unaware of the war's horror as letters home were censored as were newspapers and radio programmes. One might say that the message of this poem, literally, is “Join the war! Don’t be afraid of death; it is a victory for your Country.”

Wilfred Owen however was well aware of the horrors and tragedy of the trenches, as he lived in them until he died in 1918, just 7 days before Armistice and as the bells were ringing on November 11, 1918, in Shrewsbury to celebrate the Armistice when the doorbell rang at his parent's home, bringing them the telegram telling them their son was dead. The title of the poem, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, has a sense of irony in it. The word anthem brings to mind a country’s national anthem, which gives thoughts of hope and glory and doing your part for your country. Owen however twists this notion and shows that instead of this, the youth of Britain who are going out to battle in the trenches, are being led to their death and uses a religious and church theme to get the message across. Owen was amongst the second wave of war poets, whose poems were mostly hard-hitting, candid and shocking.    

The Soldier appeals directly to its reader. Brooke wants people only to think positively of his death, should it come to be. He tries to make people think of his death as a victory, where his body conquers the land where he died, making it become England. It also makes people believe that the same would apply their death if it were to happen to them. He describes his dead being as becoming “a richer dust” than that of the earth’s, and personifies England as being his and every English person’s mother with the metaphor “a dust whom England bore”.  There are frequent references to England, emphasising its importance and relevance, and England is described as home appropriately, a place of comfort and belonging. The last lines use lots of peaceful, positive ideas. Brooke writes about purification of death, where all evil is shed away and the thoughts given by England and given back somewhere. He uses a simile: “dreams as happy as her day”, meaning that both England’s dreams and England’s days were happy. Writing about happiness, he induces pleasant emotions into people’s minds. He ends describing England as “heaven”, a spiritual place of eternal happiness and joy. The poem is described as traditional The Soldier is effective in inducing patriotism into the minds of potential soldiers and ultimately persuading them into volunteering to fight in the war. It is a creative form of brainwashing, in my opinion. It, along with other poems of the same nature, indoctrinates people into naïve ways of thinking, for the mere purpose of gaining additional soldiers - during a time without conscription - and temporarily boosting morale.