When I read this poem “war is kind” the first thing that came to my mind is irony. It is ironical how the author refer to war as being kind bearing in mind the violence, death, injuries and destruction war brings, war is not kind. This poem is written in an anti-war theme and can be traced back to the First World War. The author of this poem most likely purpose was to address the general public. The said war in the poem took place in dusty trenches, the author states that “thick air from tossed grenades and mustard gas, the ground rumbling with unseen tanks. Above, airplanes rumbling the sky, concealed below from the low-lying smoke. Then orders given to launch a raid, soldiers climb from the “safety” of their trench, dash across a smoke filled “no man’s land,” and attempt to make it to the enemy trenches – a slaughter surely awaited. “ . This war caused a lot of death that it was named a war of attrition. …show more content…
Military officers in combat usually don’t have much time as they are more focused to accomplish their mission. Crane clearly demonstrates this because in most cases military don’t engage in long conversations thus they see passive speaking to be less than optimal. The author of this poem divides it into two parts, the first part is composed of the 1st,3rd and5th. In this stanzas the author provides the reader with a vivid pictureof a notification officer communicating in person to a wife, a child and a mother in regard to how their service member had met their fate in a most ghastly
The Effects of War on a Union Soldier in The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
“Do Not Weep, Maiden, for War is Kind”, is a poem written by Stephen Crane. This poem tries to explain and inform the reader that war is not kind, even though the title says the opposite. When thinking about war the things that come to mind are normally: terrifying, death, cruel, unhuman, etc. The poem tries to tell the reader the opposite, and there are clues that help understand the real meaning of war. This poem is written in sarcasm and repetition. Imagery is seen throughout the whole poem. The title says one thing, but it means the opposite therefore, it is written in a sarcastic way. It is contrasted by specific scenes of death and suffering. The only way war can be “kind” is if it is death ending suffering.
The speaker achieves this by employing words such as glory, noble, honor, and boldly. These words have positive connotations that make the readers feel admiration for the men risking their lives and charging into battle, which conveys the message that one should honor the heroism of the soldiers. Furthermore, the way the speaker describes how the men continued to charge even when cannons “volleyed and thundered” (21) around them and “shot and shell” (22) fired at them indicates the bravery of the soldiers and makes the reader feel respect for them, which further emphasizes the message of the poem. Also, the point of view in this first poem is third person, as if the speaker is observing the battle occurring, which gives a different perspective of warfare because there is a difference between observing and participating. When observing a battle, you don’t get the full effect of the gruesomeness, so it is easier to celebrate and honor the men that
Throughout Stephen Crane’s poem, “War is Kind,” irony is used in an attempt to protest war. In stanzas one, three, and five he states “war is kind”(Crane). This line demonstrates irony because war is not actually kind, but full of horror and torture. War affects not only the soldiers fighting, but also the woman and children back home. Irony is also used in stanza four, lines twenty and twenty-one which states “Point for them the virtue of slaughter/Make plain to them the excellence of killing.”
In the first stanza, the poem uses words like “sludge” (line 2) “limped” (6) to convey a feeling of weariness and exhaustion. It compares the soldiers to “old beggars” (1), betraying a sense of bitterness. Then, the second stanza changes into one of frenzy and panic. It opens
“When the rich wage war it’s the poor who die”, Jean-Paul Sartre, a prominent Marxist literary critic, existentialist philosopher and author stated in his 1951 drama, The Devil and the Good Lord. Wilfred Owen’s poetry is a profound protest at this fact. Owens poetry was shaped by the horrors of the first world war, he enlisted as a naïve young man with dreams of heroic deeds and “desperate glory” only to be exposed to the realities of what war really entailed. War opened his eyes to the “truth” of the world if looked at through a Marxist lens. He abhorred the patriotic poetry that gave a warped view of the war and wrote many poems depicting the horror and helplessness, he aimed to capture the pity of war in his poetry. Through this we can
Secondly irony is used in the second stanza. Before he went to war he “like a blood smear down his leg” as if it made him feel strong and powerful. He liked to show off his scars, so people thought he was brave. Now his real wounds leave him disabled. There is a strong use of imagery “And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race, and a leap of purple spurted from his thigh”. Owen a soldier and poet in WW1, who was himself killed in that war, humanises the experiences of the battle field and he sacrifices made there, timelessly memorialising such action regardless of the
Although war is often seen as a waste of many lives, poets frequently focus on its effect on individuals. Choose two poems of this kind and show how the poets used individual situations to illustrate the impact of war.
Individualism and Conformity in Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane's pieces are written with the intent to establish individualism as an unfavorable quality. He establishes that group goals are more important than that of the individual and creates groups to which each character should conform. Crane supplies models for the individual to comply to and elucidates that adherence to the group would bring reward but deviation from said groups would be detrimental. Henry, in Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, is created as a child in search of self worth and assurance. Crane establishes Henry as an individual by giving him the ability to think for himself but creates situations that stifle his individualism
This poem is a free-verse poem that speaks of the problems between war and human nature. The poem heavily emphasizes how after any war, the wounds of war will always remain. The writer Carl Sandburg, points out that battles can end and grass will cover up the damages and human loss of war, however, the wounds of war will always remain with the people who experienced the war. The scenery may change, but the emotional connection can never be lost.
However, after reading the poem over again, I was lead to grief. I believe the point of view, which is the parents of the soldiers is the key factor on why the central idea for “War” is about grief. In “War”, the father that lost his child, explains to the other parents that their children at their current age are doing their duty and for their love of their nation. Yet, once he comes to terms with the passing of his son, he grieves by sobbing uncontrollably. The following quote supports the central idea, after the woman on the train asks if his son is really dead the man reacts “His face contracted, became horribly distorted, then he snatched in haste a handkerchief from his pocket and, to the amazement of everyone, broke into harrowing, heart-breaking, uncontrollable sobs”.
The speaker faces a near death experience as the two men shot at each other only lucky that he survives after he kills his opponent. It is by chance that the speaker walks away unharmed and maybe the reason why he feels sorry for the dead man. However, it is ironic that the speaker regrets having killed the other man yet the dead man also wanted to kill him. The speaker should be happy that he escapes death and not regret as he justifies himself in stanza 3, where he apparently says that he killed the man because he was his enemy. Moreover, contrast comes in where the speaker gives the reason in a way that even he feel that it is not convincing as he pauses between the reasoning( " I shot him because-" Lines 1and 2), ( GALE section 6). Given stanza four, however, the speaker interestingly say that he had no motive for killing any person in the war and regrets shooting the man again arguing that maybe he was on the military list without his consent just like himself. The use of the war image in this context symbolizes what the survivors of war face after defeating their opponents through killing. At the end of the poem, the writer creates another image of war through the speaker's justification of killing the dead man. The poet reveals that wars are interesting in so
He states, “At the same time, this reading, in my view, adds a new resonance to the poem 's specification of the horror and the cost of war” (Hughes 1). This quote suggests an insight that war is a haunting experience in the mind and body of the soldiers who have never faced the psychological effects of war. Hughes discuss the effects of the war, “On the one hand, then, the inimitable account of the soldiers ' reduced state, and on the other, the evocation of what is experienced, despite the dehumanizing factors of the situation, as a common predicament” (1). The soldiers’ reduced state could be the appearance of the body and their actions, such as being “bent-double like old beggars,” “drunk with fatigue,” or “marching asleep.” These factors dehumanize the soldiers on the battlefield, which proves that war transforms them to become weak-oriented and arise in an unstable state of mind. One of the traumatic experiences of the soldiers convey that it “precisely does not stabilize into an objective scene, any more than the haunting image of the man as drowning in a “green sea” could simply be psychologically processed” (1). This also refers to the soldiers’ effect on the cost of the war. Not only do they encounter the disturbing sense of reality on the battlefield, they also have to face their chances
Imagine a Veteran of the Civil War reminiscing about the past. The veteran imagines how he was running away during a battle, because he was terrified. The veteran’s name is Henry Fleming. Henry talks about the battle of Chancellorsville and how he was afraid. The Battle of Chancellorsville was understandably terrifying, because it was one of the bloodiest struggles of the civil war (“The Battle: Chancellorsville”). Henry is so terrified, because he thinks that all of the opposing soldiers are shooting at him and only him (Crane). Stephen crane was a realistic writer, creating many books. Even though he did not have war experience at the time, he got his combat experience from the football field (“Stephen Crane”). Crane
In this comparative piece on these two anti-war sonnets, from World War One and the Battle of Vinegar Hill, I will attempt to explain how each writer displays the particular event in their poetry. Both these poems have irregular rhyme schemes and around 10 syllables on each line. The aim of these poems is to remind us to respect those men who lost their lives in battle, and how disgraceful war really is. In Anthem for Doomed Youth, Owen splits his sonnet into two stanzas, an octet and a sestet. The octet describes the imagery of the battlefield and the trenches on the front line.