In this essay I am going to compare two poems written on the First World War. The first is 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke and the second is 'the Battle' written by Louis Simpson.

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                    War Poetry Essay          Tim Cook

In this essay I am going to compare two poems written on the First World War.  The first is ‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke and the second is ‘the Battle’ written by Louis Simpson.

‘The Soldier’ presents a young soldier who is serving in the trenches in the First World War.  He is thinking about home and what will happen to him during the war.  He is picturing England and everything that is good about it ‘her sights and sounds’.  He also thinks what would happen if he died ‘there shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed’.  The fact that so many men will be dead means he won’t be noticed.  He will be irrelevant.  He believes that he will be the ‘richer dust’ and the soil is rich with bodies of men who have died and been buried.  He will be seen as one of many and not as an individual.  The also thinks about what will happen after he has died ‘a pulse in the eternal mind’.  He thinks that when he dies he will only be alive in the mind and through memories.  It’ the only way he will live.

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‘The Battle’ is about an army regiment who are off to the front line to fight, but on the way they are attacked and a long and bloody battle ensues.  The poem is very descriptive.  It describes what the men are wearing ‘helmet, rifle, pack and overcoat’, how they dug trenches ‘they sank like moles’ and finally the attack itself ‘the shells and bullets swept the icy roads.  The poem has a negative tone and this makes the poem more effective.  Because it is harsher and the words are quite negative the poem illustrates the harsh and frightening situation ...

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