World War One, alone caused seventeen million deaths and twenty million injuries. Ho Thein, Bruce Dawe and Kenneth Slessor are poets that attempted to raise awareness about the horrors of war. These poets changed how society thought about war. Particular poems that raised awareness included Green Beret, Homecoming and Beach Burial. These poems share the themes of reality, suffering, dishonesty and death. After reading these verses, individuals were left feeling horrified, disturbed and many other negative feelings towards war.
Homecoming, Green Beret and Beach Burial were all sad, depressing poems. Homecoming shared similarities with Beach Burial as they both revolved around the theme of death, either sending dead soldiers home in green plastic
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garbage bags or burying soldiers whose identity was unknown. Green Beret, Homecoming and Beach Burial were also similar as they made the individuals reflect upon the horrors of war. These poems had a large personal impact on the poets, which made it clear that they had been scarred from the horrors they viewed in war. Homecoming made me feel sad and depressed by how many bodies were being chucked aside daily.
It made me reflect upon how my life would have been like living in that era, constantly worrying I would get a telegram notifying me that my husband or brother had passed, or worse being unsure the rest of my life. It made me think about the impact of war, and how useless and silly it was to kill other humans. It also made me feel anguish towards the prime minister as he had the opportunity to praise those whom survived but instead treated them as they had done horror and deserved to be neglected. This poem emphasised that every animal and human are unique and deserved to be treated that way, not being put into plastic bags, like garbage. This poem made it clear that soldiers were being treated ‘like leaves from a wintery …show more content…
tree.’ Beach Burial made me feel sorrowful and sympathetic towards the soldiers. It made me visualize burying another human being that I could have potentially shot dead, along the beach unsure of their identity. It makes me realise how many soldier’s died in The Great War and their families would never know for sure. It made me imagine never knowing which grave my father or husband was buried in. This poem was a realistic view of how many soldiers died in an unnecessary war. It left me feeling empathetic and sad towards the soldiers that died in war, yet were never acknowledged for their efforts. Green Beret was about a young heroic boy, faced with the ultimatum, to choose between his father and his country.
The young boy was left feeling sad and horrified, as he had lost his life support, and potentially given up the right to a full life. This incident made me feel shocked and confused, wondering why he chose his country over his father. This poem made me feel philosophical and reflective, it made me think about how the individuals mentioned in the poem would be feeling after. I imagined the mercenary would be feeling regret, other soldiers’ honour and the young boy would be left in a dark depressing place. It resulted in me visualising young children with no father’s once the war ended, and how many children wouldn’t get the choice. I envisioned growing up without my father, it made me feel horrified and sad. I pictured growing up without my father teaching me how to play football or tucking me into bed. This poem lead to insights which resulted in horror, but overall I feel sympathetic to the young boy who had to live the rest of his life without his father, knowing he had the
choice. Overall, Ho Thein, Bruce Dawe and Kenneth Slessor had changed the way war was thought about around the world through the poems Green Beret, Beach Burial and Homecoming. These scripts were all effective in their duties, raising awareness about the horror of war. These poets were all anti-war and sympathetic. After reading these poems I was left feeling horrified and disturbed, I struggled to find a reason why war was necessary and why so many people needed to die in such an awful way.
Poetry has been used for centuries as a means to explore emotions and complex ideas through language, though individuals express similar ideas in wholly different forms. One such idea that has been explored through poetry in numerous ways is that of war and the associated loss, grief, and suffering. Two noted Australian poets shown to have accomplished this are Kenneth Slessor with his work ‘Beach Burial’ and John Schumann’s ‘I Was Only Nineteen’. Both of these works examine the complexities of conflict, but with somewhat different attitudes.
Many soldiers who come back from the war need to express how they feel. Many do it in the way of writing. Many soldiers die in war, but the ones who come back are just as “dead.” Many cadets come back with shell shock, amputated arms and legs, and sometimes even their friends aren’t there with them. So during World War I, there was a burst of new art and writings come from the soldiers. Many express in the way of books, poems, short stories and art itself. Most soldiers are just trying to escape. A lot of these soldiers are trying to show what war is really like, and people respond. They finally might think war might not be the answer. This is why writers use imagery, irony and structure to protest war.
She is a casualty of the war, not physically, but mentally. She is wounded emotionally by the loss of her loved one. This poem is set out like a nursery rhyme, its message is simple. The message reads that, in her eyes, war has ruined everything that used to be beautiful. War is unnatural and cruel, completely the opposite of nature.
...hor of the poem ¡§For the Fallen¡¨, Laurence Binyon, has also expressed the feeling of loss and alienation that comes along with war as he writes about those who fought in the Gallipoli campaign. Not only the alienation of soldiers, but the families who have suffered from their deaths:
Throughout the times war has effected people immensely both physically and mentally. All people deal with their circumstances differently to help cope with what they dealing with. Whether it’s a fatality in the family, or post traumatic stress disorder most people find a way to heal from injury or emotional damage. In Brian Turners poem, “Phantom Noise,” he writes about the constant ringing he hears from the war he served in. The poem expresses that Turner seems to deal with his emotional damage by writing poetry about what he feels, hears, and sees during the time he spent in war and in civilian life. Even though Turner is no longer in war it still effects him greatly each day. The overall tone of the poem is very solemn and makes the reader
I am going to compare and contrast the two poems ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen and ‘War Photographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy. They both give a view of war. Owen gives first hand experiences he witnessed whilst fighting in World War One and where he unfortunately died one week before the war came to an end. Carol Ann Duffy may be writing about the feelings of her personal friends who were war photographers, showing some of the horrors they witnessed.
A poem I have recently read is “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen. The main point Wilfred Owen tries to convey in this poem is the sheer horror of war. Owen uses many techniques to show his feelings, some of which I’ll be exploring. Wilfred Owen was a tired soldier on the front line during World War I. In the first stanza of Dulce Et Decorum Est he describes the men and the condition they are in and through his language shows that the soldiers deplore the conditions.
‘Poetry can challenge the reader to think about the world in new ways.’ It provokes the readers to consider events, issues and people with revised understanding and perspectives. The poems Dulce Et Decorum Est (Wilfred Owen, 1917) and Suicide in the Trenches (Siegfried Sassoon, 1917), were composed during World War One and represented the poets’ point of views in regards to the glorification of war and encouraged readers to challenge their perspectives and reflect upon the real consequences behind the fabrications of the glory and pride of fighting for one’s nation.
... wars and deaths of loved ones, or like those in a Greek tragedy, but the writer of this poem is so sincerely affected by sorrow and tragedy that it permeates his daily life, to the point where the death of a toad during the mowing of a lawn is seen as something moving and serious.
In ‘Anthem of Doomed Youth’ Owen shows another version of the suffering- the mourning of the dead soldiers. When Owen asks “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?”, his rhetorical question compares the soldiers to cattle as they die and suffer undignified. Owen uses this extended metaphor to confront us with the truth, that there are too many fatalities in war. As such, the soldier’s deaths are compared to livestock, to emphasise their poor treatment and question our perspective about soldiers dying with honour. With an overwhelming death toll of over 9 million during WWI, Owen depicts how the soldier’s die with the repetition of “Only the...” to emphasise the sounds of war that kills soldiers in the alliteration ‘rifles’ rapid rattle.’ Owen also illustrates the conditions that the soldiers died in and how they were not given a proper funeral in the cumulation ‘no prayers nor bells,/ nor any voice of mourning.’ Owen painfully reminds us that we have become complacent with the deaths of soldiers, seeing them as a necessary sacrifice during human conflict. Thus, Owen shows us what we have overlooked about war, that is, that it brings endless death and long-lasting grief to the surviving soldiers and the people around
I am going to compare the two poems “Dulce et decorum est” by Wilfred Owen and “Channel Firing” by Thomas Hardy. The poem by Hardy talks about the great German guns “Big Berthas” which fired across the channel at the nearest coastal villages, and how the noise of these guns is so terrific that it wakes the dead in their graves. “Dulce et decorum est” is a poem about a group of tired, worn out soldiers who are making their way back from the front line. They come under a gas attack and Owen describes to us the scene which is presented to him of a fellow soldier and companion “drowning” in his own mucus. Both poems portray a sense of helplessness to this exposure to the war!
Lastly, the overall message of this poem is that people through modern times doesn’t think about the people suffering in wars, hey don’t care enough. It makes us question on how we should act and how this affects our lives. Should we care more and sympathise about those that are dying, those that are innocent and suffering? This poem was very successful in making me re think about my emotions towards the was and it definitely made me look at the war photographer in a better light as they put their lives at risk to keep us posted on what’s happening overseas. This was cleverly written and Duffy’s emotions really showed about how she is disappointed and frustrated on how we look at war and death.
The Reality of War in Various Poetry Works Cited Missing The First World War was unlike any previous was Britain had ever fought. The horror of both the physical conditions and the reality of battle moved soldier and officer alike to express their reactions in verse. The soldiers' shock at the contrast between their experiences and their previous conceptions of war as described by the propaganda at home made many soldiers angry and bitter, which is reflected in all of these poems.
In the poems, “In flanders field” by John McCrae, “Concord hymn” by Ralph Waldo Emerson and “Dulce et Decorum est” by Wilfred Owen, a common theme is showed. This theme in the three poems is the theme of remembrance. In “In Flanders Field” it is important that the reader remembers the sacrifices that were taken by the soldiers during WWI. In “Concord Hymn” it is important that we remember the soldiers in the revolutionary war that earned our freedom. In “Dulce et Decorum est” it is important that the reader remembers the horror that these soldiers had to go through in World War I. One may look at these poems and come to the conclusion that the theme is war and what it's about, but the theme really is remembering different aspects of war. In all three of these poems we see remembrance as a very important because
“And the Bishop said: ‘The ways of God are strange!’.” Religion is one of the most noticeable themes that the World War 1 poets use. Death is another prominent subject of the poems written during the war. The home front is another theme in the poems. The loss of innocence is a major theme as well.