Since the world began the presence of anger between people presented war as the only answer to solve disputes. The history of our country, as well as the other countries of the world, is full of pain from the loss of so many lives from these devastating events. Society has taken into account the war tactics which were used and use them in real life to advertise products or, in some cases, to ruin people's lives. Many tactics were used during the war through propaganda to recruit men and to convince the public that war was the best and only option against the opposing side.
Newspaper articles, songs, posters and poems were among the tactics the army would have used to encourage men to join and fight for their country. Poems were written by very influential people to persuade the men to fight for their country. However, there were also poets who wrote against going off to war, for example, Wilfred Owen wrote from his personal experience to try and discourage men from joining up. I feel it is essential to consider these poems before deciding whether or not I agree with the statement above.I plan to look at four poems two of which were written before 1914 and one which is from another culture.
To understand more about their experiences and what view they have on war, I will look at the poetic devises used. I have chosen three poems to study which give an interesting contrast of portraying their views, which are that war is not a virtuous business. The first poem I will study is, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' by Alfred Tennyson which tells the story of six hundred brave British men who rode into a battle against the Russians which soon realised they could not win.It was written around the Crimean war period from 1854 - 1856 and the story behind the failed charge was a British commander who ordered the wrong order and sent the men to their deaths against the majority of the Russian army. Four hundred out of six hundred men died.
The second poem I shall study is, 'The Drum' by John Scott, a Quaker whose beliefs say that any violence is wrong. The poem was written about the war in 1782 against Napoleon and was written to discourage men from going to war.Scott explains that war is made out to be a brilliant experience where you get to wear a fancy uniform 'Of tawdry lace, and glittering arms;' but he explains, using various poetic devices, that war is monotony. It just goes round in circles.
The next poem I will study is 'Dulce et Dercorum est' by Wilfred Owen. The title, translated, means 'It is sweet and meet' which actually is an ironic title as the poem is meant to discourage men from joining the war to fight, or die, for their country.Owen describes, in vivid detail, his experiences of the war which bring a sense of realism to the fact that war causes so much pain and devastation to everyone that is involved. The final poem I will explore is, 'Green Beret' by Ho Thien. This poem is from a different culture than the first two and should add a contrast. It is about a Vietnamese boy who is captured by the American army and told to tell them everything they need to know or they will shoot his father.
The little boy stands up for what he believes and does not tell the anything and his father is shot by the men.The first poem that I read was 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' by Alfred Tennyson. Tennyson creates an atmosphere of exhilaration mixed with the bravery of the six hundred men who rode. The poem was written in admiration of these men and as an account of what happened. Tennyson used six stanzas in total for this account. Each stanza is a progress of the battle.
The first stanza refers to a psalm from the bible. 'All in the valley of Death, Rode the six hundred', which implies that they were not afraid and were putting on a brave face as they rode.But the repetition throughout the poem emphasizes the hardship they went through and also the fact that they were riding to their inevitable deaths. In the second stanza we learn that something is wrong by the line, 'Not through the soldier knew Someone had blundered:' The mood changes when they realise the wrong order was given but the lines that follow show that there was nothing they could do but die for there country fighting in battle. They could not do anything to stop what was going to happen.Stanzas three and four describe the battle and Tennyson uses alliterations, such as 'shell and shock', to indicate they are being beaten by the Russian army.
He also uses personification of death as a monster that will eat them up. 'Volleyed and thundered' is onomatopoeic as it is echoing the sound the shells would have made. These poetic devises are really effective as they bring images to the poem to make it more realistic, as if you were there. Stanza five shows the brigade retreating and a lot of repetition from stanza two is used to remind us of what they had to suffer, emphasizing their hardship.Tennyson calls the men who fought and died 'hero(s)' and this is the first sign we get of Tennyson's admiration for the riders. The final stanza is where Tennyson shows is true feelings towards the men.
He asks 'When will their glory fade? ' saying that they will always be remembered for the charge they made. The repetition in the fourth and fifth line also shows Tennyson's admiration for going along with the charge and following an order instead of turning around when they realised something was wrong. 'Honour the charge they made, Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred! These last three lines honour the Light Brigade for following a wrong order and riding to the death. The word 'Noble' is used by Tennyson to illustrate his admiration for all the six hundred men who rode. The final stanza portrays how Tennyson feels and I think the main message that Tennyson is saying, is it war is a harsh place to be.
Sometimes the wrong orders are given and innocent men are killed by following these orders. From the poem I can tell that Tennyson does not believe in war but has written this poem in disgust of the orders that were sent to the Light Brigade which eventually sent them to their death.I believe Tennyson is trying to put young men off joining the war by telling the story of the Light Brigade through poetic devices and language. There is a big contrast between 'The Drum' and 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and that is that Tennyson writes at the end of his poem, about honouring the Light Brigade for following the orders sent whereas Scott would not believe that they are honourable or should be honoured. Scott calls young men, 'thoughtless youth' and goes on to explain that they only join for the uniform.He would see these men of the Light Brigade as these 'thoughtless youths' he's written about in his poem.
However, both poets are anti-war and use their poems to discourage men from joining to fight for their country. They both use effective poetic devices, such as repetition, to emphasize the suffering of war and that war is an ongoing occurrence which repeats itself. They both also use strong imagery of war to put off the reader and to convey reality of war, that it affects everyone and everything.Both poets use their poetic devices and language effectively to convey that war is wrong and that it destroys everything in its path but the difference between each poet is that Tennyson gives an impression that dying for your country is honourable whereas Scott does not give this impression at all.
'It is sweet and meet to die for your country' is a phrase which was well known during the war. 'Dulce et Dercorum est' by Wilfred Owen is a 'gas' poem which describes Owens experiences of the First World War.It portrays a more realistic view of war then the previous poem as Owen himself is telling the world of the experiences he endured therefore a lot of graphic images are described by Owen, such as 'guttering, choking, drowning' and 'froth-corrupted lungs'. Owen had more emotion behind his writing because of these experiences which makes the poem more effective. The irony of the title, 'It is sweet and meet', emphasizes the sarcasm at the end of the poem when Owen refers to the poets, like Jessie Pope (who Owen aims this poem to in the last stanza), who try to encourage men to join war when they do not the experiences of war themselves.He finds it hypocritical of these people to advise young men about something they haven't experienced themselves.
Owen uses similes and alliteration, 'like old beggars' and 'Knock-kneed', in the first stanza as a stark opening to describe the startling images he saw of the men during the war attacks and to grab the attention of the reader. 'Beggar' is a very derogative word for Owen to use. It places the soldiers in a dirty, smelly and destitute manner and therefore challenges the readers to re-think the common view that soldiers are very clean-cut with smart uniforms.It is not as glamorous as the public perceive.
The simile and alliteration on the second line is used to describe real images moving slowly. From the third line on we begin to see how the images seen at war haunt the men who take part. They can never escape them even in there dreams. Onomatopoeic words and metaphors are used throughout the poem to convey how the men were not clued into what they were doing; 'Men marched sleeping' shows this. Short phrases such as, 'Limped on' draws us to their bravery!Even though they were hurt and injured they still walked on. It illustrates the severity of war.
The metaphor 'Drunk with fatigue' is very effective as it reveals that the men sort of lost control over their bodies and just walked on in 'auto-pilot'. The start of the second stanza changes the pace of the whole poem, 'Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! ' as it begins to describe a gas attack. 'An ecstasy of fumbling' describes the excitement/dread of trying to fit on their 'clumsy' helmets before the gas gets to them.Then horror strikes when 'someone still was yelling out and stumbling' The images of the 'green sea' of gas and the man 'drowning' in the thick gas begging him for help.
In the next stanza we find that Owen cannot escape the image of him plunging himself on him 'guttering, choking, drowning' even in his dreams. These harsh words slow the pace down again recounting the brutal way which the man died. The final stanza is where Owen addresses Jesse Pope and the people who try to encourage men to go to war. Here he is attempting, successfully, to challenge their views on war.He uses dramatic phrases such as, 'Obscure as cancer' (which is also and effective metaphor) and 'forth-corrupted lungs' Cancer is a disease which spreads through those who do not recognize it.
The word 'cancer' is a strong word to use as many people fear it. Owen uses it to get across the perception of war he has gained through his experiences. Then in the last two lines he uses Latin words from a Roman port, Horace, sarcastically calling it an old lie. 'The old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
' Translated, it means 'It is sweet and meet to die for your country'It is clear from studying this poem that Owen feels strongly against the phrase I was asked about. While studying this poem I have found that my view on the phrase has changed. Before I would have agreed completely with it but after reading through and studying Wilfred Owen's poem I am now reconsidering my view. The final poem I am going to study is 'Green Beret' by Ho Thein. I felt that it was important to look at another cultures view on war.
This poem takes the form of a story telling the alarming truth of how a little boy of 12 years old, let his father die for something he believed in.It shows how the Vietnamese people were treated by the Americans during the Vietnam war. It is an effective poem because Thien is telling a story about a boy he never knew, yet he still writes a vivid account of what happened between the soldiers, the boy and his father. Thien tells us of how a boy is threatened by the Americans, 'Right kid tell us where they are tell us where or your father - dead', and we begin to build up sympathy for the poor boy as we think that he does not know what they are looking for.
When his father is shot and we find out that the boy knew all along what they were looking for and knew all the information they needed, I found myself feeling a bit angry that he choose to let his father get killed by the Americans in such a horrifying way. Yet it becomes clear that he thinks it is honourable to die for something he believes in and so I can understand why he choose the way he did. From looking and studying all three poems I have found that I do agree with the phrase 'It is sweet and meet to die for your country' but only if it is something which you strongly believe in.From the first two poems I realised that it is honourable to the men who died in war but in my opinion I could say that I fully agree with such a phrase that has left nations without millions of men who fought for there county.
The last poem, 'Green Beret', made me realise that if I truly believed in something then I would be willing to die for it. So to a certain extent I do agree with the phrase but only if you believe that the cause for your country is worth dying for.
