Dead Body in War Poetry
Analysis of Poets

War Poetry

War is a brutal reality on the face of history. Thousands of lives have been wasted in the name of battles and millions of people were affected by it. Poet is a rather sensitive part of our society and feels the brutality of war more than a normal individual. During World War I, the world went through havoc during which millions of lives were shaken. In this era, a lot of poets also emerged due to the depression the society went through. Some of the noticeable names out of these are Wilfred, Thomas Hardy, Isaac osenberg and upert Brooke. These poets had a lot of differences in their personalities and writing styles however one thing was rather common: they used soldier's dead body as a symbol of death while describing war. Although they way they used it, was different in its own…...

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References

Fussell, P. (1981) The Great War and Modern Memory, London: Oxford University Press,, pp.36-43.

Hardy, E. (1954). Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography, London: Hogarth Press

Hickman, T.L. (1994), Visceral Imagery in the Poetry of World War I Soldier Poets

Johnston, J.H. (1964), English Poetry of the First World War; a Study in the Evolution of Lyric and Narrative Form, Princeton, N.J., Princeton University

" In the context of a war poetry, this metaphor emphasizes the greatest honor a citizen of a state can embrace is to die for his land. Obviously, Owen uses this phrase in an ironical manner, circularly ending his poem by noting: "The old lie; Dulce et decorum est Pro Patria Mori."
In terms of word registry, the poem is pretty much similar to the previous ones, meaning it emphasizes the effects the war has on soldier, the misery, the pain, the blood and the injuries. Words regarding weapons do not appear in the title, but the author uses them with a high frequency. Therefore, regarding specific actions of warfare, one can identify "hoots," "distant rest," "helmets," "lime," "panes," "to gutter" and so on. By comparing all poems presented above, it seems that Owen creates the most detailed picture and atmosphere, which could be explained by the fact that he has,…...

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References:

Clarke, George Herbert. A Treasury of War Poetry: British and American Poems of the World War, 1914-191. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1917

Powell, Anne. Another Welcome Letter: Soldiers' Letters from the Great War. Contemporary Review 265. 1546 (Nov 1994): 1

Manwaring, Randle. Poetry and the Pity of War. Contemporary Review 273. 1594 (Nov 1998): 1

It makes sense, then, that H.G. ells once "said he would 'rather be called a journalist than an artist'" (ells qtd. In McConnell 176). If the dangers of the twentieth century would come from the way unrestricted scientific advancement coupled with self-interest results in new, terrifying methods of industrialized slaughter, then the particular mode or perspective of the artist, as an opposed to the journalist, would be insufficient or irrelevant. In other words, if both the journalist and the artist seek truth, but the artist also seeks beauty, then the journalist is actually the one better suited for a world in which beauty has been overwhelmed by death and destruction on a scale and with a swiftness heretofore unimagined.

The narrator of The ar of the orlds reflects this shift, because he tells his story with as little artifice and characterization as possible, instead opting to describe the "death […] as…...

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Works Cited

McConnell, Frank. "H. G. Wells: Utopia and Doomsday."Wilson Quarterly (1976-). 4.3 (1980):

176-186.

Partington, John. "The Pen as Sword: George Orwell, H.G. Wells and Journalistic Parricide."

Journal of Contemporary History. 39.1 (2004): 45-56.

ar Is Permanent
"Nothing, nothing will ever be the same" is the last line in Peg Lauber's poem "Six National Guardsmen Blown Up Together." And it's true; nothing is the same after war. The ravages of war and conflict are permanent, indelible. This is a theme that is explored in the aforementioned Peg Lauber poem as well as in the poem "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa. It is the purpose of this paper to explore the meaning of, and thematic import of, permanence in these two plangent war poems.

"Facing It" is a poem about Vietnam. The speaker of the poem is at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in ashington, D.C. He is looking into its black reflective gabbro walls, "My black face fades, / hiding inside the black granite" (Komunyakaa). He is confronting (facing) the unbearable cost of war. And he realizes that he is at once both a part of the…...

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Works Cited

Lauber, Peg. "Six National Guardsmen Blown Up Together." New Orleans Suite.

Wisconsin: Marsh River Editions, n.d. Web.

Komunyakaa, Yusef. "Facing It." Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems.

Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2001. Print.

Despite all the graphic, inventive detailed descriptions of the physical suffering and the mental anguish Turner has endured, in the end, it is the cliche, metaphoric image of a breaking heart that sends the strongest message. It should break any human being's heart to kill, and those who are not emotionally torn up by taking another human being's life are therefore, essentially heartless.
There is also an indication in Here, Bullet, that it is not only the heart that malfunctions in the throes of death and killing, but the brain as well. hen Turner speaks of "the leap thought makes at the synaptic gap" he is symbolizing the leap a person's mind is forced to make from have a respect for life and compassion for mankind to suddenly believe that it is okay to kill, maim and torture in the name of your country. Thus from Turner's point-of-view, after being…...

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Works Cited

Turner, Brian, "Here, Bullet" Here, Bullet, Alice James Books, 2005

Turner, Brian, "Sadiq" Here, Bullet, Alice James Books, 2005

Himes, Andrew, Voices in Wartime Anthology, cited in Alice James Books. Web. 17 June, 2010. http://www.alicejamesbooks.org/pages/book_page.php?bookID=43

Whetstone, David. Culture: A Poet in Tangled Battle Lines of Iraq; Plenty of Poets Described the Horrors of the First World War, but in Modern Combat Zones They Are a Rare Beast. David Whetstone Talks to American Poet Brian Turner, Who Served in Iraq. The Journal (Newcastle, England). March 17, 2008, p. 18.

These young men were not immersed in the high modernist traditions of Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot: rather, they were immersed in the experience of war and their own visceral response to the horrors they witnessed.
Thus a multifaceted, rather than strictly comparative approach might be the most illuminating way to study this period of history and literature. Cross-cultural, comparative literary analysis is always imperfect, particularly given the linguistic challenges presented by evaluating German poetry in relation to its British counterparts. Contextualizing the British war poets requires a certain level of understanding how the war was seen by the other side, and by alien eyes. More is likely to be gained than lost by reading the German war poets in translation. Yet reading the German poets in translation allows the reader to appreciate the influence of symbolism and expressionism in their work that was not present even in the harsh…...

Flanders Fields: A World War I Poem Written by John McRae
The poem "In Flanders Fields" was written by John McRae, Canadian soldier, surgeon, and last, but not least, a poet, during World War I. McRae's poem gives a voice to those who died fighting in the war. Flanders Fields is reported to have been "the generic name of the World War I battlefields under the medieval County of Flanders." Golden Map, nd, p.1) In Flanders Fields was penned by McRae during the War Poetry Movement, a time during World War I when many poets penned poetry relating the battlefield tragedies. The primary themes in McRae's poems were death, revenge, and honor. Righter, 2008, p.1) The most famous of all his poems is "In Flanders Field" in which the idea of a tragic theme of war is related. Righter, 2008, paraphrased) A great deal of symbolism is used by McRae…...

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(4) Righter, K. (2008) The Poppies Blow "In Flanders Fields" Critical Analysis. 14 Nov 2008. Retrieved from: shspoetrya.wikispaces.com/.../In+Flanders+Fields+Critical+Ess

This study conducts a critical analysis of McRae's poem "In Flanders Fields."

(5) Patterson, R. Fermor, D. And Hall, C. (1994) John Mcrae: The Poetry and Tragedy of Flanders Fields. CMAJ 1994 Nov. 1; 151(9): 1307-1310. Retrieved from:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1337332/?page=1

3. Effects of sound -- The sound of the poem is evocative of action, words like BEHIND, JUMPED, SPIT, combining humor and active verbs.

4. Images -- The image makes the owl human, but part of nature; and an explanation for the natural world (rain) told in a way that children might think- cause and effect.

5. Emotions/Evocative, Alterative -- Teaches children that owls are wise, that nature is not meant to be captured; the poem is evocative and a journey.

6. Message -- a bit ecologic, owls part of nature, and not meant to be caught, but meant to be part of the world in which a child's imagination might inhabit.

Find and analyze TWO songs w/lyrics - these may be types or genre identified above, and/or holiday songs, hymns and spiritual songs, or patriotic. MAKE SURE THEY ARE TWO DIFFERENT GENRE. How might you present these as poetry to children or teens?…...

Fern Hill (Dylan Thomas)
The "Poetry Explications" handout from UNC states that a poetry explication is a "relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationship of the words, images, and other small units that make up a poem."

The speaker in "Fern Hill" dramatically embraces memories from his childhood days at his uncle's farm, when the world was innocent; the second part brings out the speaker's loss of innocence and transition into manhood. This explication will identify and critique Thomas' tone, imagery (including metaphors) and expressive language (as it contributes to the power of the poem). ("Fern Hill" uses 6 verse paragraphs; there are 9 lines in each paragraph.)

"Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs / About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green / the night above the dingle starry / time let me hail and climb / golden in the heydays…...

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Works Cited

Bible Meanings. (2011). Lamb. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://www.biblemeanings.info/words/animal/lamb.htm.

Cox, C.B. (1959). Dylan Thomas's 'Fern Hill.' The Critical Quarterly, 1(2), 134-138.

Thomas, Dylan. (2012). Fern Hill. Academy of American Poets. Retrieved December 9, 2012,

from  http://www.poets.org .

The need for effective resistance, and a banding together of citizens against states that engage in armed conflict is one of the dominant themes of "ar."
Pirandello's use of an omniscient, observing and dispassionate narrative voice enables him to switch focus, midway through the very short story, and turn the reader's attention to a large, overweight man who makes a somewhat incoherent argument for the importance of sacrificing one's children for the Country. He says that sons and daughters do not belong to their parents, but to their Country, and it is natural and fitting "decent" boys would consider their love for their country greater than their love for their parents. Similarly, he notes that every parent would take his or her boy's place on the front lines, again out of love for the Country. 'Country' for citizens is as necessary as bread, the man says (Pirandello 107).

However, while the…...

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Works Cited

Pirandello, Luigi. "War." 1919. 106-108.

He lay in the center of a red clay trail near the village of My Khe. His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut, the other eye had a star shaped hole. I killed him." (O'Brien 180). Very similar observations can be made about Turner's poetry. Turner uses highly descriptive language when he expresses his view of "bone and gristle and flesh," the clavicle-snapped wish" and, "the aorta's opened valves" in Here, Bullet. These images are immensely disturbing yet at the same time, surprisingly lyrical. The ability to combine these two opposing sentiments into a seamless flow of expression is a rare talent; one that both O'Brien and Turner possess in abundance.
Conclusion

hile O'Brien chooses to express his experiences through prose, and Turner chooses poetry as his medium, the sentiments being relayed are remarkably similar. Each of the literary works discussed here demonstrates that it does not…...

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Works Cited

Lomperis, Timothy J. "Reading the Wind" the Literature of the Vietnam War . Durham: Duke University Press, 1987

McCaffery, Larry. "Interview with Tim O'Brien." Chicago Review;33,1982: 129-49

O'Brien, Tim, the Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton, 1990.

O'Brien, Tim, the Man I Killed. In the Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton, 1990.

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/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)

This is not how Owen "might" respond to patriotism this is a direct assault upon it. The words of Dali ring true as the toll of war is counted up among the youthful wasted lives…...

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References

Owen, W, Anthem for Doomed Youth, at  http://www.englishverse.com/poems/anthem_for_doomed_youth 

On Seeing a Piece of Our Artillery Brought into Action, at  http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Wilfred_Owen/1215 

Dulce et Decorum est at  http://www.potw.org/archive/potw3.html 

Remarque, E.M. (1958). All Quiet on the Western Front. Boston: Little Brown.

ar at Home in Ellison, ar Abroad in O'Brien
The inhumanity of war is a common theme in literature, as brilliantly illustrated in Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," a tale that functions as a short story but is actually an excerpt from his great novel about the Vietnam ar Going after Cacciato. In O'Brien's story, several soldiers fighting in Vietnam are defined by the objects they carry in their pockets, such as photographs of loved ones, as well as their military gear and outfits. Yet the battles of individuals oppressed by society, such as African-Americans, may be equally, if not more, soul destroying, when conducted on the home front of America, on daily basis. This fact is evidenced by the evisceration of the spirit of the young African-American men in an excerpt from Ralph Ellison's seminal novel Invisible Man, entitled, "Battle Royal."

In "Battle Royal," the best and brightest young African-American…...

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Works Cited

Ellison, Ralph. "Battle Royal." From Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Eight Edition. 2001.

O'Brien, Tim. "The Things They Carried." From Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Eight Edition. 2001.

In the novel, Howad is foced to seve as an U.S. secet Agent by the Blue Faiy, a caee that eventually led to his own death.
Mothe Night epesents the fictional memois of Howad W. Campbell J., an Ameican who seved as a secet agent fo the Ameican Amy duing the Second Wold Wa. Giving that the actual autho of the novel seved himself as a soldie duing the same wa, the question of whethe o not the autho esembles the potagonist in the novel is undestandable. Pehaps one of the visions they shae is the eality of facts, Mothe Night being Vonnegut's only novel that does not featue fantastic elements. Vonnegut wote "We ae what we petend to be, so we must be caeful about what we petend to be," as the final moal fo his novel and one thing Campbell and Vonnegut shae afte all is thei vocation…...

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references to such stories like "Jack the Giant Killer" and uses the image of some demons and serpents to create the background. The tone of the play is quite humourous and ironic, thus explained by the existence of the Fool. However, the King himself is quite intelligent, even though Shakespeare uses his insanity to address nonhuman objects. Like in many of his other writings, Shakespeare's style of writing is poetic, using iambic rhythms and free verse.

Therefore, it is quite interesting to observe that such aspects of human nature depicted in King Lear resemble other works like that of Vonnegut's and his Mother Night. The technique used by the later is ultimately different from that of Shakespeare's, less dramatic, but tragic nonetheless, written in a first-person journal style. This confessional style is bound to credit the protagonist-narrator because we only get his version of the events. Interesting enough though, it seems as though Campbell discovers more things about himself as the story unfolds than does the reader.

poetry of Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg
Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg are both important poets in their own right. Although they both grew up in the same era, their poetry styles have many differences. The paper firstly states their different origin, history and poetic style. Secondly, it analyzes a selected major work - "The Road Not Taken" and "The Road and The End," - of Frost and Sandburg respectively. It is worth noticing that the chosen poetries of both poets contain many elements of similarity. This makes the chosen sample most suitable to distinguish the most minor, as well as the major differences in the poetic styles of the writers. Thus, in the paper, their lives and poetry styles are compared and contrasted using an example of their poetry.

About Robert Frost

As we read of Frost, we grow in awe of him - his thinking, his understanding, his feelings, his…...

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Works Cited

Carl Sandburg

http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~roberts/sandburg/home.htm

Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered. William Pritchard. 1984

Frost in Columbia Literary History of the United States. Ed. Emory Elliott

War poets use irony to convey the harsh realities of conflict by juxtaposing the absurd and contradictory elements of war with the expected outcomes and consequences. By highlighting the disconnect between the idealized notions of war and the gruesome truths of battle, poets are able to emphasize the senselessness and futility of conflict.

For example, poets may use irony to criticize the glorification of war by showing the devastating human cost and suffering it brings. They may depict soldiers as brave heroes on the battlefield, only to reveal the traumatic and dehumanizing conditions they face. Poets may also use irony....

Irony in War Poetry: A Chilling Mirror of Conflict's Brutalities

War, a maelstrom of destruction and despair, has found resonant expression in the poignant verses of poets throughout history. Amidst the chaos and bloodshed, they have deftly wielded irony as a literary scalpel, dissecting the harsh realities of conflict with surgical precision.

1. Disillusionment and the Futility of War

One of the most prevalent uses of irony in war poetry is to expose the glaring gap between the idealistic propaganda that often precedes war and the grim reality that awaits soldiers on the battlefield. Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" exemplifies this technique.....

1. The impact of war on individuals and society as depicted in war poetry
2. The role of emotion and trauma in war poetry
3. How war poetry serves as a form of protest or activism against war
4. Comparing and contrasting different war poems from different time periods or cultures
5. The influence of war experiences on the poets themselves and how it is reflected in their poetry
6. War poetry as a way to commemorate and remember those who have lost their lives in war
7. How war poetry reflects changing attitudes towards war over time
8. The use of imagery and language in war....

1. The Influence of Personal Experience on the Depiction of War in Poetry

Explore how poets' firsthand experiences in war shape their perspectives and writing styles.
Analyze specific examples from war poetry, examining how combat experiences influence imagery, tone, and themes.
Consider the ways in which personal trauma and loss contribute to the unique and powerful nature of war poetry.

2. The Role of Metaphor and Symbolism in Understanding the Complexity of War

Discuss the significance of metaphors and symbols in war poetry as a means of conveying the horrors and complexities of war.
Analyze how poets use imagery to evoke....