Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen
Since the threat of war in some part of the world everyday and because
of the colossal impact that it has had on our lives, it doesn't seem
surprising that it is a popular theme of poetry. Sonnets are an
extremely passionate form of poetry, used to show how the poet feels
in their heart; both Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen create this
passion in excellent, but very different ways. "Anthem for Doomed
Youth" by Wilfred Owen is a Shakespearean sonnet reflecting on the
callous life at war. Owen wrote this poem during his four months at
Craiglockhart, a war hospital, whilst recovering from trench fever.
Faced with many fatally injured men, this must have inspired him to
write a great deal. Unlike Brooke's poem "The Soldier", Owen portrays,
not a glorified or heroic war, but a realistic war. Rupert Brooke,
having not witnessed war, had attitudes showing the hysteria of war in
1914 projected to him, and knowing no different he had to believe it.
The title "Anthem for Doomed Youth" has a huge sense of deliberate
irony, stressing how brainless war appears to Owen. To Brooke on the
other hand, war is far from pointless; it is something one does to
receive admiration from their nation. Our first thought of an "Anthem"
is a song of pride, love, passion and honor, but when such a word is
followed by "doom", it takes away the glee and puts a feeling of
misery, implying an inevitable death, in replacement. "Youth" also
used in the title adds to the horror, as these are men with their
whole lives in front of them. Full of solemn comparisons, it is a poem
about the traditional funeral being substituted by the one that war
has created.
Owen writes" What passing-bells for these who die a...
... middle of paper ...
...cally, ahead
of his time, that war is not, by any means, right. However there is
genuine optimism in Brooke's poem, to him, it was an honour to fight
for his country; it was an honour to die for your country.
Out of both of these sonnets my favorite has to be "Anthem for Doomed
Youth" by Wilfred Owen. I like the way that he includes the reader in
the sonnet from the very start. I also can relate to Owen's poem and I
find it more thought provoking as I can't even begin to be in
agreement to Brooke's reasoning behind "The Soldier", but this does
shows me the attitude cultivated from the home front. With both of
these sonnets, being so different, it brings me to a thorough
understanding of both backgrounds and attitudes. The contrast between
Owen and Brooke allows the reader to see the reality of the First
World War from two totally different perspectives.
One of the poems I have chosen is 'One Flesh'. It is written in the
Thomas Paine was an activist for many causes throughout his lifetime including the abolition of slavery, government rule by democracy rather than a monarchy, and in later years about what he believed were falsehoods in the Bible. He was an advocate for freedom of the people and his writings were often controversial. He believed in democracy and leaned toward rule by the common man. After becoming a friend of Benjamin Franklin, he traveled to the colonies. While in the colonies his writings on the American Revolution caused him to become an enemy of the British Government. When he returned to Great Britain his writings as a proponent for the French Revolution caused him to have to flee to France to avoid arrest. His political stance in France eventually caused him to be imprisoned and he eventually had to flee again to the United States to escape long-term imprisonment. He traveled quite a bit and was able to see firsthand the American Revolution and the French Revolution. Thomas Paine was a gifted writer, and he was very devoted to his causes. He is extremely famous for his pamphlet Common Sense which he wrote about what he felt was the necessity for American independence and later had an input into the Constitution of the United States of America. There were a number of gifted male writers during this timeframe who wrote about the same issues, including Edmund Burke, so even though he was a revolutionary writer, he was not unique.
Bradstreet, A., & Kallich, M. (1973). A Book of the Sonnet: Poems and Criticism. New York: Twayne Publishers.
"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal [but] which the reader recognizes as his own." (Salvatore Quasimodo). There is something about the human spirit that causes us to rejoice in shared experience. We can connect on a deep level with our fellow man when we believe that somehow someone else understands us as they relate their own joys and hardships; and perhaps nowhere better is this relationship expressed than in that of the poet and his reader. For the current assignment I had the privilege (and challenge) of writing an imitation of William Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 87". This poem touched a place in my heart because I have actually given this sonnet to someone before as it then communicated my thoughts and feelings far better than I could. For this reason, Sonnet 87 was an easy choice for this project, although not quite so easy an undertaking as I endeavored to match Shakespeare’s structure and bring out his themes through similar word choice.
The sonnet is a form of poetry that is vastly used among poets. There are usually two types of sonnets in poetry, the Shakespearean sonnet and the Italian sonnet. Sonnets are typically defined as poems made up of 14 lines that rhyme in a specific way. William Butler Yeats’ “Leda and the Swan” is an example of an Italian sonnet. It consists of 14 lines and the rhyme scheme is ABABCDCDEFGEFG. In his poem, Yeats’ uses the sonnet form in many traditional ways. However Yeats’ also revises the sonnet form in order to help readers understand the main theme of the poem, which is rape.
Oscar Wilde claimed to have discovered Aubrey Beardsley, when he asked him to illustrate his Salome. However, many people have claimed the same thing. Author Robert Ross on the other hand, thinks that Beardsley really started with the men with whom his work will always be associated. The men he worked with on the Yellow Book. (Aubrey Beardsley, p.14).
The First World War not only reshaped boundaries, watched empires rise and fall, but it also saw a drastic change in the literary art, and the view of war and all its “glory”. With authors such as Wilfred Owen, the world was beginning to get exposed to the brutality of war from the front line. Like most poets of his time, Owen wrote in the modern period. “And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” (Dulce et Decorum Est). This gruesome line paints a picture of a gas attack. Although his life on earth was cut short, Owen has truly made a spot for himself among the greatest war poets in history.
The first poem I am going to write about is "Dulce et Decorum est". It
The structure of the sonnet tell us that these events and ideas took place chronologically. So the further one has read into the sonnet they will have a greater grasp as what is happening and what has happened. In addition, the English sonnet fit this chronological scheme perfectly, in my opinion, because at the end of our job I remembered how rewarding it is to be in the orchard early in the
The speakers progression of emotions and the progression of the fever drive the direction of the sonnet. Each quatrain and the final couplet are a step in the progress towards emotional understanding and a break in the fever of love. His lamenting of his woeful state at the beginning of the poem endures feverish madness but ultimately leads to a clear understanding of the truth of the lover while, most importantly for the speaker: providing a means of overcoming the love – of indeed, breaking the fever.
Bender, Robert M., and Charles L. Squier, eds. The Sonnet: An Anthology. New York: Washington Square P, 1987.
In Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets, Smith uses nature as a vehicle to express her complex emotions and yearn for a renewal of her spirit. Utilizing the immortal characteristics of spring and the tempestuous nature of the ocean, Smith creates a poetic world that is both a comfort and a hindrance to her tortured soul. Even while spring can provide her with temporary solace and the ocean is a friend in her sorrow, both parts of nature constantly remind her of something that she will never be able to accomplish: the renewal of her anguished spirit and complete happiness in life once more. Through three of her sonnets in this collection, Smith connects with the different parts of nature and displays her sensible temperament with her envy over nature’s ability to easily renew its beauty and vitality. In “Written at the close of Spring,” Smith’s second sonnet, she focuses on the wonderful ability nature has in rejuvenating itself each year.
Sonnets". Studies In English Literature, 1500 - 1900. (Rice Univ., Houston , TX) (35.4 ) [Autumn 1995] p. 641… LION. University of Calgary Lib. 30 Nov. 2004.
Sonnets have existed as a change of pace and challenge for writers since their first appearance during the Renaissance. Unlike many other forms of poetry and prose, sonnets function with a specific formula. With strict rules about the amount of lines, and the need for complete adherence to specific patterns, it is no surprise that it takes a skilled writer to create an enjoyable and structurally correct sonnet. While there is no straying from the path in the actual building blocks of sonnets, the content is a different story. Since sonnets often have the theme of romantic love, differences between them show through the unique relationships between the lovers. Specifically, in the sonnets of Shakespeare, Spenser, and Pollitt, we see a happy relationship, one full of recognized
Moran, Daniel. “Sonnet XXIX.” Poetry for Students. Ed. David Galens. Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale, 2002. 146-147. Print.