After reading war poems we are able to get a true idea of how horrific war was and learn of its negative consequences. The main idea in war poems becomes apparent when reading Wilfred Owen’s poem, Dolce et Decorum Est. In the last stanza, the lines: “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie: Dolce et Decorum Est, Pro Patria Mori” demonstrates the main idea. ‘Dolce et Decorum est’ is a Latin saying, which means ‘it is sweet and right’. The poet is saying that people should not talk about war as enthusiastically as it gives the impression that war is glorious.
Elena Benoit ENB 111 3/31/15 Harsh and awful events permanently leave a mark on our memory. Specially, when these events are directly linked to an individual, the memory reproduces every second of what happened. It must certainly be a life of continuous relief, depression, and guilt at having survived the risks of combat. In Yusef Komunyakaa's poem, "Facing It", the poet uses imagery to convey the tone, which will stimulate many different emotions from somberness to excitement and fear. Imagery is clearly evident from the beginning lines “My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite” (1-2).
In contrast to this, Rosenblum’s article explores the perception of war from the view of the solider and the tension between “Romantic militarism” and liberalism. Talmon’s chapter makes connections to many romantic themes by relating events to the dominant forces or ideas at work in the era—such as the French and the Industrial Revolution. And finally, Coleridge’s poem reveals the influence of the French Revolution upon British Romanticism. Portraying nature as a spiritual gateway, he utilizes the natural world as an escape from his fears of a potential invasion in England. In each of these
''Title of Things Fall Apart'' The title of Achebe's novel ''Things Fall Apart'' owes to William Butler Yeats'1921 ''visionary''poem ,''The Second Coming''.Yeats speaks of the break-down of the ''old'' order and its displacement by a ''new'' order that rouses mixed feelings of revulsion and fascination in him.So the title is a kind of tribute to Yeats' mysticism. ''Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon can not hear the falconer Things Fall Apart;the centre cannot hold Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world''. Achebe would have most carefully chosen both the epigraph and title as his novel,is too about a forcible break-up of an older and settled order.Achebe is preoccupied with things falling apart,the break-down of the ''old'' order under the relentless onslaught of the ''new'' order. The significance of a title increases when it hints at the theme of the book.The very title''Things Fall Apart'',highlights the process of disintegration of Ibo culture and society.Achebe looks back at his Ibo society specifically at the period the white man broke into it and''mere anarchy''loosed upon the world of Umuofia. The major theme of the novel is that British colonoization and the conversation to christianity of tribal people has destroyed an intricate and old pattern of life in Africa.Dealing with the theme of chaos and disruption,Achebe's selection of title is not only proper,suggestive and accurate but a true reflection and the mirror to its theme.
According to Campbell “there is the belief that the poem’s function is simply to report what happens, without comment or judgment. Seemingly inconsequential elements gain the attention of the poem functioning in the realist mode” (42). Some major components to Realism are: the importance of character, intricate ethical choices as a subject, a focus on the middle class, and the ability to write reality as closely as possible with an extreme attention to detail. Walt Whitman is best known for his realist poetry and political works during the Civil War. He had an unusually American style and use of common people as subject matter.
The mood of the poem is one of fury, this is shown throughout the poem with the use of imagery. In the first stanza Wilfred Owen starts the poem by asking rhetorical questions in relation to the subject of the state of the soldiers’ minds. The first use of rhetorical questions this stanza uses is in the quote ‘Who are these?’ Owen uses this to show that the state of the soldiers is so inhuman that he does not recognize these soldiers as humans. The next use of rhetorical question is used in the quote asks “Why they sit they here in twilight”. This emphasises the idea that the soldiers with shellshock are in a state of their own mind and keeps them in an unhealthy mental state.
All throughout the poem, the poet keeps an undermined toned of pessimism and paints an apocalyptic imagery that hits the readers as they progress in the poem. “I Sit and look out “by Walt Whitman is also a fine instance of the author’s disillusionment with the world that is evident through the first two lines of the poem and it continues to the point where he exclaims; “I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame; I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done; I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate; I see the wife misused by her
“A good poem may lead to sadness, joyful or simply wandering, but it always leads us to think more deeply about life” Discuss this statement with reference to at least two Sassoon’s poems. A good poem may lead to sadness, joyful or simply wandering, but it always leads us to think more deeply about life. A War poem is a poem that is written on the subject of war. It is applied especially to those in military service. The nature of war poem is to show how horrible and disgusting war is.
Throughout the whole poem, the readers are able to know his disapproval, dislike and displeasure over the place that he lives in, by creating a moody and sullen tone which enhances the eerily seriousness of the atmosphere. The content, aim and the theme help to reinforce the writer’s intentions and message of the poem. Through the four quatrains, iambic tetrameter poem, it shows a society that is portrayed as being devastated and grim. Using the basic rhyme scheme of abab, it shows how the people and the places are infected and affected. The rhyme is able to give a flow to the events, making it on-going showing how the society keeps on worsening day by day.
Suicide in the Trenches – A hidden massage of a personal abhorrence How is war like? Siegfried Sassoon’s poem “Suicide in the Trenches” answers this question effectively through communication of his personal abhorrence of accruing bloodshed in war. He presents his hidden massage by contrasting images of a desperate young soldier and the conceited crowds to reveal his resentment of war. Sassoon uses the two main components to presents extreme abomination are language and content. Sassoon uses blameful language to describe the ruthless of government in order to reveal the ugly hidden massage as settling the situation.