The speaker starts the poem by saying ‘next to of course god america i love you’. As God is the most powerful person, using exaggeration and placing God and America on the same level shows patriotism and how much he loves his country. As you read further through both poems, the attitudes to war both change. In Bayonet Charge, the soldier starts to panic and confusion starts to creep in. This is evident as the first line of the second stanza says ‘In bewilderment then he almost stopped-‘.
He said his main concern was ‘war and the pity of war’ He felt it was his responsibility as a poet to tell the truth and bring to light to atrocities of modern warfare, in a way others could or would not. Once he had properly experienced war his poetry became a form of education, he wanted to expose the belief war was good and noble and prove wrong the propaganda that bombarded Britain. No knowledge, imagination or military training could properly prepare Owen for the reality of war and the suffering of front line experience it brought along with it. Within twelve days of arriving in France the ‘easy-going’ chatter of his letters turned to a ‘cry of anguish’. ‘The Sentry’ was written by Owen when he was receiving treatment at Craiglockhart in Edinburgh in 1917, finished in September later that year whilst in France.
- seven sparse stanzas structured in tercets, the majority of which conclude with full stops. this creates a sense of finality, which could represent the abrupt nature of war and how death can be so sudden. half rhymes - notably poignant in the final stanza “sung and rung” as they could evoke a sense of incompletion, suggesting no one remains to complete it which conveys their premature deaths and the scale of death. Free Verse: The use of free verse, particularly within lines but also regarding the rhyme scheme, could symbolise the unpredictability and uncontrollable nature of war and death. The tercet structure creates a sense of abruptness, which could reflect how short and abrupt the soldiers’ lives were.
They witnessed as their comrades were blatantly killed on the battlefield, but were forced to quickly move on and continue fighting. This was the same mentality as the WWI soldiers featured in the book “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Remarque. However, in the true nature of these soldiers, they cared for and mourned over their fallen comrades. In addition, the soldiers of both wars didn’t join them because of the violence of it, but solely because it was their duty. They felt they needed to honor their country by serving in the wars.
Until Fleming returns to battle with is fellow soldiers, he feels isolated. When he begins to fight alongside his friends, for a purpose he loses the feeling of being isolated. There were a few problems with The Red Badge of Courage. The dialect of the soldiers was very hard to understand. Also in the dialogue they used old terms that aren’t used today, such as hellwhoop which means at great speeds.
Just making the reality of hope for survival even less likely, and crushing their spirits. Heroism is not only you signing up for war; it is about you doing something significantly great to help another in need, because you believe that it’s the right thing to do. This book shows us that ordinary people, like Paul can become heroes themselves from the actions they take whilst in the war and that the leaders such as Himmelstos turn into cowards, by cowering in the corner, when the war started to get intense. This book shows many heroic moments that these soldiers did in order to help themselves, and each other out. Paul, in one heroic moment, carried an injured friend, Albert all the way to a camp, only to finally find out that he had died along the way.
The realities of war in Welford Owens “Dulce Et Decorum Est” Throughout history fighting for a war has often been regarded as an honorable and patriotic act. Movies like The Patriot, Independence Day and Saving Private Ryan tend to portray characters fighting for wars as brave and honorable. While these movies are entertaining and often inspirational, they do not accurately portray the realities of war. “Dulce et Decorum Est,” a poem by Wilfred Owen, depicts the true and darker reality of war. It is a poem that conveys a message about the brutalities and horrors of war to an ill-informed and complacent audience in England.
‘If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed…’ These opening lines of Rupert Brooke’s poem ‘The Soldier’ are amongst the most patriotic lines written in a poem. The fact that he believes that should he die, it has made the country he died in better because there is richer ‘English’ soil in it. These lines show a very optimistic attitude toward war yet do not glorify it, showing merely that dying in war is a proud thing to do for your country. It is written in the context of a letter, not just from Brooke, but from every young soldier to their loved ones, warning them of the possibility of his death, and stating it would actually be a good thing either way, hence ‘if I should die’, with the word ‘if’ being important, as there is still a possibility he will not.
This is a typical theme which runs through Edward Thomas' poems. He also explores the civilian public's hatred of “the Kaiser” and Germans. He definitely disagrees with it, and vehemently so too. The overall tone of the poem is one of disagreement, perhaps quiet anger. But this is also coupled with a tone of lofty love as well.
Owen uses many writing techniques to get across his message, in the most affective way. In the opening stanza, Owen uses alliteration for the first few lines "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like old hags, we cursed through sludge." This introduces you to the soldiers, as helpless, and weak, and gives the words more emphasis, making them stand out to be significant. Assonance was also used in these lines, in "cursed through sludge", which ties the words together very well, and highlights the more important ones. The short sentences used give the poem a slow pace in the first stanza, which adds to the effect.