Analysis of World War 1, World War 2, and the Contemporary War Poets' Writings - Essay Example

A critical analysis of the World War World War 2, and the Contemporary War poets’ writings A war has no place for poetry in it. But the pain and anguish caused by war has made poetry flow like blood, many times. The emotions in these poems have been a genre apart and they live a literary life apart. These poems reflect a range of thoughts starting from simple pain and loss and ending in philosophy and beyond. If we look at the three major war-ridden periods of human history, each can be seen to have its own collection of poems, written with blood and tears. World War 1 Charles Hamilton Sorley (2009) was the British soldier-turned-poet who came to be known as a war poet because all his poems were about the war that he witnessed and fought. Sorley was killed in the battle and his poems were recovered from his kit after his death. In his poem named ‘Stones’, he (Sorley, 2009) wrote: This field is almost white with stones, that cumber all its thirsty crust. And underneath, I know, are bones, and all around is death and dust” (6). Sorley’s poetry, in that sense is the celebration of the futility of war. In his lines, the strong realization that nothing good comes out of any war, is seen and felt. There is never an instance in his poetry when he glorifies the war or the soldiers who won or died. This is why his poetry has been acknowledged as totally genuine and honest. Robert Graves had been a contemporary of Sorley, but unlike Sorley, he survived the war. One of his most typical poems, ‘A Dead Boche’, narrates the sight of a dead German soldier and declares that “war’s hell” (Graves, 1918 cited in Bartleby, 2010). The poem begins with the lines, “to you who’d read my songs of war…”, and then gives proof to the statement that “war’s hell” by describing the dead German soldier whom he found in the woods, with the lines, “in a great mess of things, unclean, sat a dead Boche; he scowled and stunk, with clothes and face, a sodden green, big-bellied, spectacled, crop-haired, dribbling black blood from nose and beard” (Graves, 1918 cited in Bartleby, 2010). Here, the words fill the air with real stink and smell of blood. Graves have been well known for such powerful use of language and the poetry here rises above nationalities to become a great equalizer, a leveler, as death is. Isaac Rosenberg’s ‘Poems from the trenches’ had been branded as the greatest set of poems of World War 1. In his poetry, the gruesome images of war come alive and the reader is transported to the middle of explosions and war cries. When he (Rosenberg, n.d cited in Famouspoemsandpoets, 2010) writes about the sight of “a man’s brains splattered on a stretcher-bearers’ face”, poetry which always has a love affair with the beauty of the world, is suddenly sunk into the abyss of darkness (Rosenberg, n.d, cited in Famouspoemsandpoets, 2010). One poem in this set of poems, ‘In the Trenches’, paints the heartrending picture of a soldier reveling in a moment of joy when he sees two poppy flowers “that winked on the ledge”, but then a shell bursts that soldier and the “trench floor…(gets)… strewn” by poppies of blood (Rosenberg, n.d, cited in Famouspoemsandpoets, 2010). Here, the ability of men to find happiness even in the face of death and the madness of war that destroys such beauty is classically depicted. World War 2 also had its own war poets and poetry. Keith Douglas had paid his homage to Rosenberg in his poetry, ‘Desert flowers’ (Douglas, 1943 cited in net.lib.byu.edu, 2010). He wrote, “Rosenberg, I only repeat what you were saying, the shell and the hawk every hour are slaying men and jeroboas, slaying” (Douglas, 1943 cited in net.lib.byu.edu, 2010). These lines suggest that death, pain and loss are the only outcome of any war. Sidney Keyes, the British poet of World War 2 died in action leaving behind a number of poems reflecting similar emotions. Keyes’ lines are like a dual-narration as if the poet and soldier is talking simultaneously and he wrote in his poem, ‘War Poet’, “ I am the man who looked for peace and found my own eyes barbed. I am the man groped for words and found an arrow in my hand” (Keyes, n.d cited in Salamanderoasis.org, 2010). This dilemma is the most haunting and sad memory that a war evokes. People who are in their prime youth, who are full of youthful dreams, and who have the potential to become great contributors to humanity are illogically sacrificed on the altar of war. Karl Shapiro was a Second World War American poet. He (Shapiro, n.d. cited in Poemhunter, 2010) calls the soldiers “the good-bad boys of circumstance and chance whose bucket helmet bang the empty wall where twist the murdered bodies of …(their)….pack,” in his poem, ‘Troops Train’. In the poem, ‘Aside’, how the mail day brings back a soldier from death and war if only for a moment is described (Shapiro, n.d. cited in Poemhunter, 2010). The poem begins with the word, “Mail day” and claims that even “the war stands aside for an hour” when the mail comes for soldiers (Shapiro, n.d. cited in Poemhunter, 2010). It has to be noticed that any of the war poets discussed above not even spend a single word to discuss the politics of a particular war that they are reporting through their poem. All these poets, though many of them have been soldiers on one side of the fight, never care for their nationalities when they face death. They see themselves die and realize that the enemy also dies the same way. But while coming to the contemporary world, the poets are seen to shed their subtleties and become more direct and sharp. The poem, ‘Here, Bullet’ by Brian Turner (2004 cited in Fishousepoems, 2005) is an imaginary conversation with a bullet which becomes a conversation with the ideology of war itself. Turner (2004 cited in Fishousepoems, 2005) through his powerful depiction, shows that a soldier or a warring nation is nothing much different from an insensitive, mechanical bullet which turns every human being into a simple body alone (Turner, 2004 cited in Fishousepoems, 2005). “Last post” by Carol Ann Duffy says the only meaning of war is “to die and die and die”(Duffy, 2009 cited in The Gaurdian, 2009). A woman’s perspective is so well defined in her war poems. Only a woman can imagine that, “all those thousands dead are shaking dried mud from their hair and queing up for home” (Duffy, 2009 cited in The Gaurdian, 2009). Her poetry has as its central theme the life that has been wasted unlived by those who died in war (Duffy, 2009 cited in The Gaurdian, 2009). Carol (Duffy, 2009 cited in The Gaurdian, 2009) depicts reality of war by replacing the nameless soldiers with the terminology, “British boys.. (who)…rewind back to their trenches, kiss the photographs from home-mothers, sweethearts, sisters, younger brothers..”. Another poem, “Big ask”, by Carol Ann Duffy is more specific about the contemporary politics and war scenario. In this poem, the poet asks, “Guantanamo Bay, how many detained? How many grains in a sack?” and also, “where was Saddam when they found him at last?....Maybe holed under a shack,. What happened to him once they had kicked his ass? Maybe he swung from the neck. The WMD…you found the stash? Well, maybe not in Iraq” (Duffy, 2009 cited in The Gaurdian, 2009). Here, the poetry is not simply a lamentation as it was in First and Second World War poems. Instead it has identified the propagators of war and has cornered them sharply. Here the poetry has traversed the difficult path from well-meaning humanism and self-sacrifice to questioning and raising the voice. ‘Horse latitude’, a contemporary poem by Paul Muldoon is a critique on Iraq war (Muldoon, 2006). He (2006, p.42) wrote, “ every point was a point of no return, for those who had signed the covenant in blood” which represented equally well the dead millions of Iraq and the young American soldiers who lost their lives. The stark realities of a war which dehumanized the entire world is reflected in the single image of “a child soldier who would Hi-Lite a locust with a flame” in this poem (Muldoon, 2006, p.78). It can be seen that Muldoon (2006) is not obsessed with war as other poets have been. For him, war is one of the many vices that has inflicted humanity and he is a witness who, without sentimentality records history flowing before his eyes. The poetry of wars has to go on repeating and reinventing itself as long as fighting continues on this earth. But with each war and with each poet, the wish for peace is stronger than ever. References Douglas, Keith. n.d., Desert Flowers, net.lib.byu.edu, 2010, http://net.lib.byu.edu/english/WWI/influence/desert.html Duffy, C.A. 2009, The last post, Gaurdian.co.uk, 31 July 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/31/carol-ann-duffy-last-post Duffy, C.A. 2009, Big ask, Gaurdian.co.uk, 25 July 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/31/carol-ann-duffy-last-post Sorley, C.H. 2009, Marlborough and other poems, BiblioBazaar LLC, 33 Cannon Street, Charleston. Graves, R. 1918, A dead boche, in Bartleby.com, 2010, http://www.bartleby.com/120/19.html Keyes, Sydney n.d., War Poet, salamanderoasis.org, 2010, http://www.salamanderoasis.org/poems/k/keyes-sydney/warpoet.html Muldoon, P. 2006, Horse latitudes, Faber and Faber, London. Rosenberg n.d, Isaac Rosenberg poems, Famouspoetsandpoems.com, 2010, http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/isaac_rosenberg/poems Shapiro, K. n.d. Troops train, poemhunter.com, 2010, http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/troop-train/ Shapiro, K. n.d. Aside, poemhunter.com, 2010, http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/troop-train/ Turner, B. 2004, Here, Bullet, fishousepoems.org, 2005, http://www.fishousepoems.org/archives/brian_turner/here_bullet.shtml Read More