How do three war poets create sympathy for the soldiers?

“Suicide in the Trenches” is a war poem about how a regular Boy can go from a happy and cheeky person to a person who has to have a drink just to make it through the day.

Siegfried Sassoon say’s that most soldiers who joined up were under the age that was required to join up.

“I knew a simple soldier boy.”

The word ‘Boy’ emphasises the fact that he is young and that he has all of his life ahead of him. This says that this boy is very simple and that he is never miserable. Also it says ‘I knew’ implying that he wasn’t ever seen again.

Also he isn’t given a name which implies that lots of other people (The same age as himself) signed up illegally just because they thought that it would be a better life.

Sassoon uses grinned instead of smiling to show that the boy is content with excitement and happiness.

“Who grinned at life in empty joy”

This shows that the boy is very happy and that he can’t stop himself from grinning which makes him feel really happy and that nothing can put him down or phase him because he’s that sort of person. Also it says ‘Empty Joy’ which implies that he has his whole life ahead of him and that he can choose where he goes.

In the second stanza the mood and the attitude change a lot. It goes from being really happy and cheery to going to miserable and depressed.

“He put a bullet through his brain”

This shows us that to get rid of all of the things that he had seen, he had to destroy the library in which the images are stored. His brain. Also he does this because he wants to kill himself rather than German soldiers have the pleasure.

Finally in the last stanza it’s for how the writer (Siegfried Sassoon) feels about war and how people interpret it.

“Who cheer when soldier lads march by.”

This shows that even th...

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... the second stanza the tempo and the tone picks up and gets worse.

“GAS! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling.”

Wilfred Owen makes this line to liven up the poem because before this it was really sombre and sad. He does this to create a different atmosphere to the one that was there before.

In the poem ‘Mental Cases’ it describes what Wilfred Owen witnessed when he was in Craiglockhart War Hospital being treated for “Shell Shock”.

“Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?”

“Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows”

These two lines describe that the men who had Shell Shock weren’t men anymore. They were in a complete mess. Also it saying that they were just rocking suggesting that all that they could do was rock from back to forth. While doing this they are in a safe place but the soldiers themselves still think that they are still on the Western Front.