Francis Ledwidge Poetry Analyis

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Francis Ledwidge Poem Analysis Joe Blackmore Francis Edward Ledwidge was born in 1887, and grew up in rural Ireland and his beloved countryside is an iconic figure in most of his poems. One stand out feature of his poems is his affinity of birds and their recurring imagery and not to mention his clear interest in Mythical Gods offer the readers a sense of splendour and this aids to imply a thoughtfulness, wonder and also softness to his poems. Although his poems possess significantly less amounts of the viciousness and perhaps realism of what the war was like, they hold an ironic quality which not only differentiates his poems from other war-time poets but proposes a broader and more deepening view on a war which he barely cared for at all. It is clear that Ledwidge’s style is lyrical and, although his work is not entirely abstract, it is apparent that he focuses more on themes of the war rather than identify precise moments, yet this approach is somewhat different to many of the poets during that time and this is what makes his work distinctive and unique. In his poem “War”, Ledwidge appears to apply a representation of war itself. In the first line, the reader can understand that the “Darkness and I are one” not only implies that he is narrating as the war itself but also the fear he felt during the war. By narrating as The War and his use of “wind” and “nagging thunder” it can be interpreted that Ledwidge, by arranging nature with war potentially sees war as a natural occurrence and something that is innate in all human nature. The sentence “my mother was a storm” is a strange line. The reader sees the “storm as potential destruction, the destruction that the war will bring about on the world perhaps however this is juxtaposed by the warm “mother” imagery that the reader receives. This sentence could be interpreted as the “mother” being Britain or Ireland –

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