To what extent are the war poems you have read protesting

A. E Housman and Thomas Hardy, both highly recognised poets, wrote their poems in response to the same war. This war, The Boer War (1899-1902) is affectively described in their writing, particularly by Hardy In 'Drummer Hodge' and 'A Christmas Ghost Story', and by Housman in 'Astronomy'. It is clear to me that these poems are protesting, by choice of language and theme, the wars they describe. Walt Whitman, America's foremost poet of the time of the Civil War (1861-1864), wrote poems that were affected by his own intimate experience of the war.

During the year of December 1862, Whitman travelled to Washington D. C to care for his brother who was wounded as a result of the battle.He then decided to stay and work in hospitals to help those in need. A reader is made to see his poems, 'Reconciliation' and 'A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim' in the light of this highly personal involvement with wounded men. Although each of the five poems deals with the same theme, they do so in different ways: Whitman's poems are a close, intimate association of himself with the confederate dead.

His poems simply explore a personal ethic of absolute identification with "enemies", whereas Hardy and Housman's poems show war to be essentially bleak and tragic.Hardy's 'Drummer Hodge' is a powerful evocation of a single soldier's tragic death. The poet shows the Boer war in grim terms showing how a trooper is mistreated and dishonoured. The poem starts by describing Hodge's burial peremptory, 'They throw in Drummer Hodge'. This suggests to us that Drummer Hodge is treated ignobly at death. Even worse, Hodge is left 'unconfined'.

From my understanding, Hardy is emphasising that Hodge is brutally disregarded, and in doing so Hardy suggests the war held no glory for anyone. Hardy goes onto show that Hodge's death is meaningless.He dies in a place he does not know for an unknown cause: Young Hodge the Drummer never knew-fresh from his Wessex home the meaning of the broad Karoo, The Bush, the dusty loam, and why uprose to nightly view strange stars amid the gloam'. This also suggests that his death was for an meaningless cause.

Not only was Hodge isolated by man kind, he was young and innocent. We are encouraged to sympathise with him when the poet uses his name to provide him with a distinctive and very English presence, a 'Hodge'. This is supported by my quote mentioned above. The idea of Hodge being young and innocent is re-emphasised through terms like 'fresh'.

We also sympathise with Hodge because of his isolation. The soldier's isolation is presented more clearly through lines like; 'His homely Northern breast and brain grow to some southern tree' in verse three. Hardy uses oppositions between the word "south" and "north", to emphasise Hodge's isolation and alienation. It is clear to readers that Hardy creates an image of an isolated soldier, who has risked his life for a cause he does not know, and it is then when we realise that this war is a waste making Hodge's death tragic.The soldier, from his Wessex home, does not know where he is, '.

.. Hodge the Drummer never knew- fresh from his Wessex home - the meaning of the broad Karoo'. This is emphasised by the inexplicable strangeness of his environment.

Intelligently, Hardy rhymes two key terms, 'Home' and 'loam'. This contrast shows where the dead Drummer Hodge was, home, and where he is now, on land that is full of soil and decayed leaves. However, in the last verse Hardy suggests that nature offers some constellations. Drummer Hodge was left isolated yet recognised by the "constellations" in the sky. These constellations represent the absence of his family, or his beloved ones.

His land mark is a kopje-crest that breaks the veldt around; and foreign constellations west each night above his mound'. This idea of nature as a memorial is intensified in the last verse: 'Yet portion of that unknown plain will Hodge forever be; His homely Northern breast and brain grow to some Southern tree, and strange-eyed constellations reign his stars eternally' The stars at first were strange, now they look down on his burial, as 'His stars'. Trees grow out of the ground in which he was buried, acting as a memorial. We know that through the third stanza, 'His homely Northern breast and brain grow to some southern tree'.Nature seems to emend mankind's mistakes, recognising him with the memorial he deserves: 'Yet portion of that unknown plane will Hodge forever be'. Hardy suggests nature's response to the death of one soldier in the war and ironically contrasts man's neglect.

It is the image of the isolated soldier and how nature takes care of him that makes a reader understand the moral of the poem. The poet shows to what extent the war is a waste. In Hardy's, 'A Christmas Ghost Story', his subject is again a deceased soldier. To fully engage with the poem, the reader must assume he or she is British.It starts out with 'South of the line, inland from far Durban', immediately establishing the sense of a soldier far from home.

Hardy personalises the audience allowing them to connect deeply with the soldier. 'A mouldering soldier lies, your countryman'. This distinctive personalisation also enables us to sympathise with the character, he is "ours", a fellow citizen. This personalisation is even more intense by means of poetic technique: Hardy uses rhyme to explain the soldier's pain. By rhyming the two words, bones and moans, he shows that the bones moan because of intense pain even after death.

He also uses alliteration in his poem '... uzzled phantom' to draw attention to the man's suffering. During the second half of the poem the poet is trying to make people understand that starting a new year is a waste if we will not start on the correct terms, which were once brought by the 'man crucified'.

It also emphasises that the death of Jesus was a waste. Hardy compares the soldier to Jesus, allowing us to conclude that the dead soldier's death was a waste as well. Walt Whitman's poems were about the war and were very effective. In 'Reconciliation' and 'A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim' the poet writes in response to the American Civil war.His poems contrast with Hardy's poems, even though Whitman is also writing in response to a war. The major difference between Whitman's poems and Hardy's and Housman's is that Whitman is personally involved at the scene of battle with those who have died as a result to the war.

Whitman's first poem starts out with Whitman as a male nurse who finds three dead "forms" near his tent. This poem, 'A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim', starts out with a negative mood where the poet engages with the three dead soldiers.He first sees them as deceased individuals whom he does not know: 'Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there untended lying'. They are left untended and vulnerable.

Whitman gives the dead respect and attention: he is curious to know more about the forms. 'Curious I halt and silent stand'. It is at this point when the poet starts to reveal the individuality of the "forms", deepening his engagement with them. 'Then with light fingers I from the face of the nearest of the first just lift the blanket'.

He gently lifts the blanket, suggesting his sympathy, and he does the action slowly, with tenderness, again suggesting a feminine touch. The mood of the poem then changes to a positive one, as the poet shows his respect indeed intense love for the dead. Whitman suggests the men are separated from him as enemies and yet he is able to deeply identify with them in a sort of loving regard. He does this by initially treating them as strangers, when he whispers, 'Who are you', but then easily accepting them as 'Dear Comrades'. This shows us that he is moved emotionally to engage with them.The poet especially sees life in the dead child, calling him 'sweet and darling'.

His intense regard for the child, who he, ironically, describes as 'blooming', showing how affectively Whitman sees his subjects. In conclusion, readers infer that all poems mentioned deal with the same theme and present the same moral. They deal with soldiers who have lost their lives as a result to the war, there deaths may not seem for a cause in all five poems. They contain a different historical context.

Hardy portrays war as a wasteful event when he links himself to Jesus, who's death was meaningful.He shows readers how man neglects those in need and how nature plays the role of our mother, through both of his poems. Whitman, again visualilses death as waste yet he personally engages with the victim of the war. This contrast can be as a result of him 'nursing' the injured and dead during the time of the Civil War.

He brings life to the dead and responds to them himself, whereas Hardy allows nature to respond to the dead making his poem impersonal. I personally think all poems are very effective due to the contrast between the style of the poets. They allow us to see the effects of war in which they lived through two different approaches.