War Poetry

This blog is a response to a task assigned by Vaidehi Madam, Department of English (MKBU). This blog is about 'War Poetry'. For more details click here.

Q-1: Note down the difference of all the War Poets.

War poetry is a genre of poetry in which mostly poetry about the war is written. War poets stand aside from all the other poets because these poets have physically gone to war and they tried to express their real experiences through their poetry. Major war poets are Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brook, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Siegfried Sassoon, Ivor Gurney. All the poets have different writing styles. 

Wilfred Owen

Before these poets British poets used to romanticise the concept of war but this generation of the poets show the reality of the war. In Wilfred Owen’s we find such the essence of the reality of war. He is very famous for his half and full rhyming style. He has followed his own writing style instead of following classical writers. In his poem he portrays the harsh pictures that are felt in the war. In his poetry we also find the companionship and in the war if someone very close got injured or dies one has to move on for the sake of the country that type of real life experiences he shared in his poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”. In his poem we find the themes of trauma and destruction of the mental and physical state of human beings in the war. 

Rupert Brook

In Rupert Brooke's poetry we find the essence of patriotism and love for the country. In his poem ‘The Soldier’ he talks about the life of the soldier. When he dies at some place out of his/her hometown he tells everyone to remember him. He talks about his past life and his relationships with friends and family. He remembers them at the end of his life. And he wants to die as an England soldier. He says that his body belongs to England, and he always breathed English. In his poem we find the themes like war, patriotism and nationhood.

Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

Wilfrid Wilson Gibson was an English poet, who participated in world war one and shared his experience in his poetry. In his poem named ‘The Fear’ he talks about fear of death. He says that he is not afraid of death because he is dying for a purpose. He is dying for his nation. He also shared his thoughts on the last moment when we die, how we suffer and at the end we find the ultimate peace. 

Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Sassoon was born into a wealthy Jewish family. He spent most of his leisure time writing poetry and hunting foxes before world war 1. After world war he wrote about the horror and brutality of warfare. He satirized generals, politicians, and churchmen for their incompleteness and blind support of the war. In his poem “The Hero” he talked about the mother of a soldier. He says that either side of the border when a soldier dies his mother is the only person who cares. He showed the darker picture of the war. One can connect it with one bollywood movie ‘border’. In the song we see the scene of blind mother waiting for her son and then he dies in the war. The cruelty of war can be seen in Saddin’s poetry.

Ivor Bertie Gurney

Ivor Bertie Gurney was an English poet and composer. He went to world war 1, where he was deeply affected by the war environment. He expressed his experience in his poetry. In his poem ‘The Target’ he talks about the reality of war. He starts with saying “I shot him” then the poem begins like it is the destruction in both the ways killing or to be killed. This poem is written in first person narrative. He says through this poem that there can not be any good consequences of war at any level. There would be destruction on both sides. If a soldier kills another soldier it's not a victory, it is the defeat of humanity.

Q: 2 Comparison of two poems: 

‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke and 

‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen

• ‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke

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;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

      Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;

A body of England’s, breathing English air,

      Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

      A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

            Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

      And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

            In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. (Brooke)

•  ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

 

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

 

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

 

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

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,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori. (Owen et al.)

Subject of the poems:

Both of the poems stand with the two different aspects of the war. We find the major idea in both poems is war but one romanticises the war and another one criticises it. In the first poem we find the same idea of war that the poet has written that gives ecstasy by reading and everyone feels that they want to fight for their nation. Nevertheless another poem talks about the trauma of the war, that says that war is no good and it can never be an option at any cost. The poem talks about the reality of war that is traumatising. 

Style of Writing:

‘The Soldier’ poem is written in very simple language compared to the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’. In ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ some words are used from Latin and Roman languages, which makes poems difficult to understand. The style of ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ is similar to the French ballad poetic form. The poem is in two parts, each of 14 lines. The first part of the poem, the first 8 lines and the second 6 line stanzas are written in the present as the action happens and everyone is reacting to the events around them. In the second part, the third 2 line and the last 12 line stanzas the narrator writes as though at a distance from the horror and rhyming style is ABABCDCD. ‘The Soldier’ poem is written with fourteen lines in a Petrarchan/Italian sonnet form. The rhyme scheme is the ABAB CDCD form in the first stanza, and then follows with EFG EFG form.

Patriotism:

In both of the poems there is a reference to patriotism but in different manners. ‘The soldier’ is a poem which is all about patriotism, and the speaker sings songs about his country. In this poem, the poet talks about the rivers, sun and the body of England and the speaker feels proud that he can die for his country. In the other poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ there is a trauma rather than only patriotism. In this poem we find the reality of the war, not just the good things about the war. In this poem we find the hardness and sorrow of the soldiers. When other soldiers are dying in front of the eye of the other soldiers what type things they would feel that can be observed in this poem. In a way both poems are different in tone. One sings a good song about the war whereas the other is showing the harsh reality of the war.  

Q-3: Do you find any such regional poem/movies/web series/songs that can be compared to any one of the poems Also, give a proper explanation of the similarity.

Answer:

There are many movies and webseries and songs about the war, where we find similarities. There is a movie named ‘Border(1997)’ . There is a similar situation like war and the life of the soldiers, how soldiers have to leave their families for the sake of war. Many soldiers martyred during the war that we can connect with the poem: ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’. There are songs that show the same picture like war poems. (Dutta)

Other movies like Uri, Shershah, LOC Kargil, Lakshya. In the movie Border while in the war many soldiers are dying, and other soldiers can not do anything rather than just watch them die. In the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ we can find the same reference of a soldier's death. In a ‘Shershah’ movie there is a love story in which more importance is given, but there too we find that when we lose someone who is very close to us, that pain can be felt. 

'Lakshya' movie

In the movie named ‘Lakshya’ there is a similar concept of patriotism that we can see in the poem ‘The Soldier’. In the beginning the protagonist was not able to find any career option and kind of an immature person he seems but when he becomes an army officer again he finds his goal (Lakshya), like in the poem “The Soldier'. (Akhtar)

Words: 1723

Photos: 08

Reference:

Akhtar, Farhan, director. Lakshya. Excel entertainment, 2004.

Brooke, Rupert. “The Soldier by Rupert Brooke | Poetry Magazine.” Poetry Foundation, 1915, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/13076/the-soldier. Accessed 29 January 2024.

Dutta, Jyoti Prakash, director. Border. 1997.

Owen, Wilfred, et al. “Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen.” Poetry Foundation, 1920, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est. Accessed 29 January 2024.