What Potential Significance Can Be Found in the Use of Nature as a Metaphor in the Falling Leaves, in Flanders Fields, Spring in War-Time and Perhaps, to Express Grief in the First World War?

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What potential significance can be found in the use of nature as a metaphor in The Falling Leaves, In Flanders Fields, Spring in War-Time and Perhaps, to express grief in the First World War? Metaphor is widely used within many war poems which allow the poets to express their feelings in a way that others may relate to it, whether they also lost a loved one in a war or not. This adds significance to the poems as, although they are about the poet’s own personal loss and grief, anyone who feels like they can relate can see the poem as something personal to them. This is due to the fact that the metaphors used clearly describe what it means to. According to Knowles and Moon (2006) metaphor is used to “make a connection between […] two things” as there are some things we might “not understand […] except with the help of metaphorical models.” This may be evident in the war poems that use nature as a metaphor. For example, in The Falling Leaves, Margaret Postgate Cole uses the metaphor of “brown leaves” and “snowflakes” to portray the deaths of the soldiers in World War I. Cole compares the soldiers to “brown leaves dropping from their tree/In a still afternoon”. The leaves fell in a very unnatural manner as there was “no wind” to make them fall. This compares to the soldiers’ unnatural deaths as war is man-made so does not occur in nature. This is also shown when Cole says that they were “Slain by no wind of age or pestilence” as she is saying what killed the soldiers was not natural. The comparison of the soldiers with “snowflakes” may be to portray the youth and innocence of many of the soldiers that died as many who fought were under eighteen. Also, Cole says that the soldiers “fell, like snowflakes” which shows just how many soldiers are dying as snow falls in large quantities. This could express grief as many people who read the poem at the time may be mourning

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