Diagnostic essay on 'Waterloo' by Raymond Garlick

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Charlotte Joyce

Diagnostic essay on ‘Waterloo’ by Raymond Garlick

Raymond Garlick sets his poem ‘Waterloo’ through a frank and subtly persuasive narrative. The poem allows the reader to explore Garlick's viewpoint on a homage to The Battle of Waterloo and war scenarios and to view them from a perspective that could be considered to have a contemporary and ironic viewpoint. In order to be able to gain a greater understanding from this poem, it is important to take note of the historical context of the poem.

From the outset, the subject of ‘Waterloo’ is directly addressed, through the immediate introduction of the rhetorical statement “Waterloo?…”. This has the effect of inviting the reader, subconsciously evoking a response from them to its one-word question. The title of the poem does this to more immediate effect, but the use of a rhetorical question in the first line grabs the attention of the reader, whilst also tackling the main subject straight away. The style of the poem is narrative, conversational, whilst raising questions about the value of war in the reader’s mind at the same time, (in this case, the Battle of waterloo). Not only is the concentration placed on Waterloo, the subject of war, generally, could also be applied to the speaker’s rhetorical and subtle questioning in the poem.

The speaker invites the readers on a journey (as could be suggested from the first stanza:

… we went once

There were several hours to fill

Before we caught the boat.

He influences the readers’ view, by conveying his own views about the Battle, as well as the value of war from a modern context. This is done through his expressive language

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(“violent race”, “…cenotaphs / Praising the field on which they bled” and “Dunged by forty-thousand dead”). He questions the true value of the homage to those who died in the Battle and other wars. He agrees that while “all have their cenotaphs”, it is not a “true memorial” as the wheat upon which the soldiers died.

It could be suggested, that the speaker slightly degenerates the value of the monuments, calling them “man-made” and implying there are many of them. By the poet’s use of contrast, we realise they don’t have any real attachment to the dead soldiers, consequently ...

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