Examine different attitudes to war through comparing poetry Essay Example For Students

Examine different attitudes to war through comparing poetry Essay Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen are poets who fought for England in the First World War. Both poets depict the same topic of war, but through different views and opinions. Despite them pertaining to the similarly themed subject, their language and tone invoke contrasting feelings in readers and affects their impression of war in opposite ways. Examples of these differences can be seen in the two poems by Rupert Brook The Dead (iii) and The Soldier and two by Wilfred Owen Anthem for Doomed Youth and Dulcet et Decorum Est. Rupert Brooke writes The Dead (iii) in an extremely relaxed and romantic mood. Brooke had not experienced war, so with this in mind the poem seems very clear and concise. Brooke aims to show us the glory that is brought about by dying for your country. He thinks that war is a simple and dignified cause. He aims to make us more patriotic and convince us to die for our country in war. The first line is very energetic and Joyous for a horrendous subject such as war. This may mean that Brooke tries to symbolism enthusiasm and glory. Since bugles are used at a grand occasion, but also militarily charges and retreats he may be trying to indicate that dying for your country is a glorious way to end your life. Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead! As he says, it has made them rich. This probably means that they are wealthy with glory, praise and admiration. He makes no mention of the pain and suffering in war. The third line explains that dying has again made them important. But, dying has made us rarer gifts than gold. Gold is very rare, so by dying they have been them valuable and unique. Brooke is trying to signify that not many people sacrifice their lives this way. This in Brooks belief is a very honorable and glorious practice. The sestets explains to us how the soldiers dying bring England a lot of honor and credibility. Honor has come back, as a king, to earth, And paid his subjects with a royal wage; The peace that has been present for so long has made her weak. Heritage is use to clearly link with the overall theme of payment and reward. It implies that which is rightfully theirs, has been successfully implemented. And we have come into our heritage. In The Soldier, Brooke feels content to die for his motherland to protect the people left behind. The title conveys a sense of pride and loyalty to the reader. Although fully aware of the possibility of death, indicated by the line If I should die, think only this of me: Even if his ashes, his richer earth, were to lie in a land distant from England, his love would still be forever. This is further stressed when his relationship is compared to the bond between mother and child. A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, His purpose of fighting for his country is to protect England, indicated by the words, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, His sense of pride and honor is so strong that he does not dwell on the gloom and misery that is associated with war, instead views it as if through rose-tinted glasses. Even if his contributions were minute, shown by the comparison of, A pulse in the eternal mind Give somewhere back the though ts England given, He is happy to repay England and wishes to preserve her laughter and gentleness for the future. This contentment and happiness is clearly shown by the words peace and heaven, even if he is dead, he can rest in peace as he has loyally served his country. This patriotism is frequently brought to attention with the repeated use of the word England and English throughout the poem. The Soldier gives out an optimistic tone, making war out to be a peaceful and heroic CT. It is written in the form of a Patriarchal sonnet, which is traditionally used to express personal thoughts and feelings. This could have been the reason why Rupert Brooke chose to write in this form. It is also an autobiographical poem in which the author expresses a personal viewpoint on war and his love for his country. Rupert Brooke also makes use of iambic pentameters, which is a line containing five stresses. It gives his written words authority by using this classical verse. It also provides a rhythm, which reminds the reader of a heartbeat or a pulse. This helps in making his argument more convincing. The stanzas are separated into two. The octave talks about the possibility of death while the sestets talks about death itself and what his sacrifice will mean for England. It gives the traditional, naive and biased view of war. It also gives a pastoral description yet a biased view of England as he blatantly ignores the negative side of England only mentioning its best side. He uses a religious diction, for example the last line reads, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. This reveals Brooks belief in God and Heaven. This is what makes the poem sound somewhat like a sermon. Rupert Brooke expresses patriotism and his conviction that England is worth fighting for as he also claims that God is on Englands side by saying blest by the suns of home. By believing in this, Rupert Brooke makes himself believe that he should sacrifice his own life for England and by doing so he would be returning the favor of being born British and so believes it is an honor to go to war and an even greater honor to die in battle for ones country and in return, portrays in his poem an image of one dying a painless death. Such a view is in the Victorian tradition of war which viewed it as a glorious and bole enterprise, with such poems as Tennyson Charge of the Light Brigade. The life of the students EssayThis is hon. when he writes, like a man in fire or lime; as in the days of plague where lime was used as a substance to decompose dead bodies, and in saying this, he says that those who enter war, those who actually participate and experience war at its worst, for them there is no return to normality, or indeed humanity. He writes about a soldier who had died of poisonous gas inhalation and describes it vividly, trying to make the reader imagine the scenes before him using the present progressive verb form ending with -ins. For example, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. This gives the sense of immediacy, that the reader is actually witnessing the soldiers death. This soldier died by breathing in poisonous gas. Then Owen describes how the mans dead body was treated, Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devils sick of sin, This shows the pain he was in, as he was on the brink of death. This is to illustrate that as the devil is destined to commit evil until the end of time, it has come to the extent that even the devil is sick of the amount of evil and torture around it. The elisions diction used here symbolizes the relationship between war and the devil and that they too, are playing on the same grounds as the devil. A direct address to the readers is also used, using a persuasive technique, especially in the last stanza, for example, If you could hear in line 21, My friend, you would not tell in line 25, This is so that the reader would feel sympathetic towards him and the soldiers. It is almost as if Owen is begging the reader to understand. Through describing this mans tragic death and his burial, Wilfred Owen tries to change the views of the public. The use of fricatives symbolizes the harsh reality of war as by using fricatives, for example a hard c is used in words such as corrupted and cud, it becomes as though the reader can actually hear the person dying as it sounds like choking and so writes in a very vivid form. In the last few sentences he makes his final message clear, My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old lie: Dulcet et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mort. Again he makes a personal plea to the reader telling them not to tell children that AR is a patriotic act and the only answer to the worlds problems. It is in fact the worst possible answer, there can never be honor as a result of war and there are only dire consequences. Brooks love for England is shown throughout his work. As in Dulcet et Decorum Est repetition and alliteration used. The words Engl and and English are repeated many times to show his love for his country and alliteration such as, Her sights and sounds magnify the beauty of England. It is also used to mask the horrors of death on a battlefield as it states, That theres some corner of a foreign field. He also believes that heaven will look similar to England by stating under an English heaven and therefore also believes in the superiority of the English, a richer dust concealed. Owen, on the other hand, witnessed twentieth century war in all its cruel destructiveness and as a consequence brought war poetry into the modern era. Although both poets write about the same topic, which is war, they both have different views and attitudes towards it. Perhaps this is because of their different experiences with war. Brooke is like a new soldier, naive and yet to experience its horrors. Owen writes as if he has Just witnessed the worst, as he was involved with the uglier and bloodier part of the war. He also reveals the effects both on and off the battlefield. Both authors have distinctly different impressions of war because of their different experiences, but ultimately, both describe the subject, although from totally opposite sides. The two poets really contrast and oppose each other greatly. Brooke writes about war idealistically and with passion, Whereas Owen does the complete opposite. Owens poem is however more reliable since he has experienced war. The Dead was written before the war. The Soldier was written in 1914, a year before Brooke died, and Owen wrote Dulcet et Decorum Est in 1917, three years after the First World War had started. In these dates we may find the reasons behind the conflicting ideology the two men gained. Brook wrote his poem at the beginning of the war, and so the ideas and perceptions of war and fighting for ones country as being noble and heroic were still fresh in his mind and the publics. Owen, on the other hand, wrote his poem three years into the war and in that time was able to see and accept the realities of war, so his perception of war was changed to bitterness ND this was reflected in his many poems such as Anthem for Doomed Youth in which he reveals the same feelings on war as he does in Dulcet et Decorum Est.