Comparing and Contrasting the Portrayal and Warfare in Poetry

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Comparing and Contrasting the Portrayal and Warfare in Poetry

War poetry

A Comparattive Essay

Choose two poets that we have studied so far. Compare and contrast the

portrayal of warfare in four of the poems studied.

This essay will compare and contrast the portrayal and warfare in four

of the poems studied.

The first world war was portrayed as a glorious and credible cause,

fighting war for your country was deemed as the duty of any credible

man. Being able to represent your country on the battlefield was the

greatest honour a man could have. Men were engulfed with the idea of

being able to fight for their countries futures. Women would have to

do everything they could to stop their husbands and sons from risking

their lives by signing up for the war. At this time poetry was written

to encourage men to go and fight, poets like jessie pope who wrote war

poetry enforced this view.

JESSIE POPE WILFRED OWEN

WHO’S FOR THE DULCE ET DECORUM EST.

GAME?

THE CALL DISABLED

These poems were written about (and at the same time as), World War I,

between 1914 to 1918. In these barbaric four years->killing spree 7

million men and leaving 17 million men injured, (physically-the war

tactics resorted to the tortures of gas attacks, gun-shot wound, shell

shock, starvation and exposure, to name a few...), the rest were

scarred by memories never fading. World war one devastated lives and

souls, time and space. But citizens back home had no way of knowing

what war was capable of, without television or radio to communicate to

them, they were only left to imagine the true horrors men were

enduring. If people had reailsed the true extent and the horrors of

what was actually happening, morale would have been severely

detrimentally affected. These poems were created by the thoughts and

feelings expressed by soldiers at battle.

Propaganda was partially to blame for the young lives that were stolen

by the war, because it encouraged men to actively volunteer for the

dream of taking the empire to victory and in return recieve the pride

of serving their country. Propaganda was engineered to give citizens a

false impression/ illusion of positivity about the events that were

truely making history horrifically, and consistently sent a message of

fortitude and unity to the enemy. Men were driven by promised finicial

gain, status and the chance to travel, but under such pointless pain,

suffering and horror that awaited them, ready to engulf them all in

battle, in such conditions as; 48 hours bomboardment, being surrounded

by dead bodies, acheing (mentally, physically and emotionally), foul

infestation, and living in fear and horror was not worth the cost of a

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