THE WAR POETS

Literature II

di Pietro, Alejandra
 HISTORICAL CONTEXT - WWI

World War I, also called First World War or Great War, an international conflict that in 191418 embroiled most of the nations of
Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions. The war pitted the Central Powersmainly Germany, Austria-
Hungary, and Turkeyagainst the Alliesmainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States. It ended with the
defeat of the Central Powers. The war was virtually unprecedented in the slaughter, carnage, and destruction it caused.

World War I was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It led to the fall of four great imperial dynasties (in
Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and, in its destabilization of European society, laid
the groundwork for World War II.

The Allies and the Central Powers

The Powers known as the Allies in World War I were predominantly: Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy. Italy initially had a treaty with
Germany, but recanted and secretly allied with the Allied Powers. The United States joined the Allied Powers in 1917 after the country could no
longer stay neutral, as Woodrow Wilson had planned in the Proclamation of Neutrality and other reasons involving kinship and propaganda. The
Allies were ultimately comprised of 25 nations.

The Central Powers were Germany, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. These nations banded together, mostly out
of national pride, and for revenge for previous losses (i.e the Bulgarians to the Serbs in 1913). These alliances were sloppy: some of the nations
were not aligned with others at all times, or declarations of war were not made against all the Allied Powers.
Causes

Hidden Causes

The rise of nationalism:

by the turn of 20th century, a fierce rivalry had developed among Europes great powers. Those nations were: Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Great Britain, Russia, Italy and France. This increasing rivalry among European nations stemmed for several sources: competition for
materials and market, territorial disputes, competition for military power and dominance, etc. Besides this, much of the origin of the war
was based on the desire of the Slavic peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina to no longer be part of Austria Hungary but instead be part of
Serbia. In this way, nationalism led directly to the War.

Imperialism:
(Imperialism is when a country increases their power and wealth by bringing additional territories under their control). With the rise of
industrialism countries needed new markets. By 1900 the British Empire extended over five continents and France had control of large
areas of Africa. Before World War 1, Africa and parts of Asia were points of contention amongst the European countries. This was especially
true because of the raw materials these areas could provide. The amount of lands 'owned' by Britain and France increased the rivalry with
Germany who had entered the scramble to acquire colonies late and only had small areas of Africa.

Militarism:
As the world entered the 20th century, an arms race had begun. By 1914, Germany had the greatest increase in military build-up. Great
Britain and Germany both significantly increased their navies in this time period. Further, in Germany and Russia particularly, the military
establishment began to have a larger influence on public policy.

Alliances:
A number of alliances had been signed by countries between the years 1879 and 1914. These were important because they meant that
some countries had no option but to declare war if one of their allies declared war first.

1879 1881 1882

The Dual Alliance Austro-Serbian Alliance The Triple Alliance
Germany and Austria-Hungary made an Austria-Hungary made an alliance with Germany and Austria- Hungary made an
alliance to protect themselves from Russia Serbia to stop Russia gaining control of alliance with Italy to stop Italy from taking
Serbia sides with Russia
1894
Franco-Russian Alliance 1904 1907
Entente Cordiale Anglo-Russian Entente
Russia formed an alliance with France to
protect herself against Germany and Austria- This was an agreement, but not a formal This was an agreement between Britain and
Hungary alliance, between France and Britain. Russia

1907
Triple Entente 1914
Triple Entente (no separate peace)
 This was made between Russia, France and
Britain to counter the increasing threat from Britain, Russia and France agreed not to
Germany. sign for peace separately.

Crisis in the Balkans:

(Balkan peninsula--- a mountainous peninsula in the southeaster corner of Europe) by early 1900s the Ottoman Empire, which included
the Balkan region was in rapid decline. While some Balkan groups struggle to free themselves from the Ottoman Turks, others already
succeed in breaking away from their Turkish rulers. Serbia had a large Slavic population, and was supported by Russia. Austria- Hungary
opposed to Serbia and feared that efforts to create a Slavic state would stir rebellion among its Slavic population. In 1908, Austria
annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the following years, tension between Serbia and Austria steadily rose.

Immediate Causes

Murder of the Archduke of Austria:

on June 1914, the archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife paid a visit to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. However, a Serbian
nationalist assassinated him and his wife while they were in Sarajevo, (which was part of Austria-Hungary). This was in protest to
Austria-Hungary having control of this region. Serbia wanted to take over Bosnia and Herzegovina. This assassination led to Austria-
Hungary declaring war on Serbia. When Russia began to mobilize due to its alliance with Serbia, Germany declared war on Russia.
Thus, began the expansion of the war to include all those involved in the mutual defence alliances.

New Weapons of World War I

The planning and conduct of war in 1914 were crucially influenced by the invention of new weapons and the improvement of existing types since
the Franco-German War of 187071. The chief developments of the intervening period had been the machine gun and the rapid-fire field artillery
gun. The modern machine gun, which had been developed in the 1880s and 90s, was a reliable belt-fed gun capable of sustained rates of
extremely rapid fire; it could fire 600 bullets per minute with a range of more than 1,000 yards (900 metres). In the realm of field artillery, the
period leading up to the war saw the introduction of improved breech-loading mechanisms and brakes. Without a brake or recoil mechanism, a
gun lurched out of position during firing and had to be re-aimed after each round. The new improvements were epitomized in the French 75-
millimetre field gun; it remained motionless during firing, and it was not necessary to readjust the aim in order to bring sustained fire on a
target.

Among the lethal technological developments that were used for the first time (or in some cases used for the first time in a major conflict) during
the Great War were the machine gun, poison gas, flamethrowers, tanks and aircraft. Artillery increased dramatically in size, range and killing
power compared to its 19th-century counterparts. In the war at sea, submarines could strike unseen from beneath the waves, using torpedoes to
send combat and merchant ships to the bottom. Click here for more information on Weapons of World War I.

Trenches
trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived all day and night. There were many lines of German trenches on one
side and many lines of Allied trenches on the other. In the middle, was no man's land, so-called because it did not belong to either army. Soldiers
crossed No Man's Land when they wanted to attack the other side.

Soldiers in the trenches did not get much sleep. When they did, it was in the afternoon during daylight and at night only for an hour at a time.
They were woken up at different times, either to complete one of their daily chores or to fight. During rest time, they wrote letters and sometimes
played card games.
Misery in the Mud
Life in the trenches was nightmarish, aside from the usual rigors of combat. Forces of nature posed as great a threat as the opposing army.

Heavy rainfall flooded trenches and created impassable, muddy conditions. The mud not only made it difficult to get from one place to another;
it also had other, more dire consequences. Many times, soldiers became trapped in the thick, deep mud; unable to extricate themselves, they often
drowned.

The pervading precipitation created other difficulties. Trench walls collapsed, rifles jammed, and soldiers fell victim to the much-dreaded "trench
foot." A condition similar to frostbite, trench foot developed as a result of men being forced to stand in water for several hours, even days,
without a chance to remove wet boots and socks. In extreme cases, gangrene developed and a soldier's toeseven his entire footwould have
to be amputated.

Unfortunately, heavy rains were not sufficient to wash away the filth and foul odour of human waste and decaying corpses. Not only did these
unsanitary conditions contribute to the spread of disease, they also attracted an enemy despised by both sidesthe lowly rat. Multitudes of rats
shared the trenches with soldiers and, even more horrifying, they fed upon the remains of the dead. Soldiers shot them out of disgust and
frustration, but the rats continued to multiply and thrived for the duration of the war.

Other vermin that plagued the troops included head and body lice, mites and scabies, and massive swarms of flies.

As terrible as the sights and smells were for the men to endure, the deafening noises that surrounded them during heavy shelling were terrifying.
In the midst of a heavy barrage, dozens of shells per minute might land in the trench, causing ear-splitting (and deadly) explosions. Few men
could remain calm under such circumstances; many suffered emotional breakdowns.

Poison Gas Attacks

In April 1915, the Germans unleashed an especially sinister new weapon at Ypres in northwestern Belgiumpoison gas. Hundreds of French
soldiers, overcome by deadly chlorine gas, fell to the ground, choking, convulsing, and gasping for air. Victims died a slow, horrible death as their
lungs filled with fluid.

The Allies began producing gas masks to protect their men from the deadly vapor, while at the same time adding poison gas to their arsenal of
weapons.

By 1917, the box respirator became standard issue, but that did not keep either side from the continued use of chlorine gas and the equally-
deadly mustard gas. The latter caused an even more prolonged death, taking up to five weeks to kill its victims.

Yet poison gas, as devastating as its effects were, did not prove to be a decisive factor in the war because of its unpredictable nature (it relied
upon wind conditions) and the development of effective gas masks.

Shell Shock
Given the overwhelming conditions imposed by trench warfare, it is not surprising that hundreds of thousands of men fell victim to "shell shock."

Early in the war, the term referred to what was believed to be the result of an actual physical injury to the nervous system, brought about by
exposure to constant shelling. Symptoms ranged from physical abnormalities (tics and tremors, impaired vision and hearing, and paralysis) to
emotional manifestations (panic, anxiety, insomnia, and a near-catatonic state). When shell shock was later determined to be a psychological
response to emotional trauma, men received little sympathy and were often accused of cowardice. Some shell-shocked soldiers who had fled their
posts were even labelled deserters and were summarily shot by a firing squad.

By the end of the war, however, as cases of shell shock soared and came to include officers as well as enlisted men, the British military built
several military hospitals devoted to caring for these men.
Main Events

World War I began on July 28, 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. This seemingly
small conflict between two countries spread rapidly: soon, Germany, Russia, Great Britain, and France
THE START
OF THE were all drawn into the war, largely because they were involved in treaties that obligated them to defend
WAR certain other nations. Western and eastern fronts quickly opened along the borders of Germany and
Austria-Hungary.

The first month of combat consisted of bold attacks and rapid troop movements on both fronts. In the
THE west, Germany attacked first Belgium and then France. In the east, Russia attacked both Germany and
WESTERN
AND Austria-Hungary. In the south, Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia. Following the Battle of the
EASTERN
FRONTS
Marne (September 59, 1914), the western front became entrenched in central France and remained
that way for the rest of the war. The fronts in the east also gradually locked into place.

Late in 1914, the Ottoman Empire was brought into the fray as well, after Germany tricked Russia into
thinking that Turkey had attacked it. As a result, much of 1915 was dominated by Allied actions against
THE the Ottomans in the Mediterranean. First, Britain and France launched a failed attack on the Dardanelles.
OTTOMAN
EMPIRE This campaign was followed by the British invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Britain also launched a
separate campaign against the Turks in Mesopotamia. Although the British had some successes in
Mesopotamia, the Gallipoli campaign and the attacks on the Dardanelles resulted in British defeats.

The middle part of the war, 1916 and 1917, was dominated by continued trench warfare in both the east
TRENCH and the west. Soldiers fought from dug-in positions, striking at each other with machine guns, heavy
WARFARE artillery, and chemical weapons. Though soldiers died by the millions in brutal conditions, neither side
had any substantive success or gained any advantage.

THE
UNITED
STATES Despite the stalemate on both fronts in Europe, two important developments in the war occurred
ENTRANCE in 1917. In early April, the United States, angered by attacks upon its ships in the Atlantic, declared war
AND
RUSSIAS on Germany. Then, in November, the Bolshevik Revolution prompted Russia to pull out of the war.
EXIT

Although both sides launched renewed offensives in 1918 in an all-or-nothing effort to win the war,
both efforts failed. The fighting between exhausted, demoralized troops continued to plod along until
the Germans lost a number of individual battles and very gradually began to fall back. A deadly outbreak
of influenza, meanwhile, took heavy tolls on soldiers of both sides. Eventually, the governments of both
THE END Germany and Austria-Hungary began to lose control as both countries experienced multiple mutinies
OF THE
WAR AND
from within their military structures.
ARMISTICE The war ended in the late fall of 1918, after the member countries of the Central Powers
signed armistice agreements one by one. Germany was the last, signing its armistice on November 11,
1918. As a result of these agreements, Austria-Hungary was broken up into several smaller countries.
Germany, under the Treaty of Versailles, was severely punished with hefty economic reparations,
territorial losses, and strict limits on its rights to develop militarily.

Many historians, in hindsight, believe that the Allies were excessive in their punishment of Germany and
that the harsh Treaty of Versailles actually planted the seeds of World War II, rather than foster peace.
The treatys declaration that Germany was entirely to blame for the war was a blatant untruth that
GERMANY humiliated the German people. Furthermore, the treaty imposed steep war reparations payments on
AFTER THE Germany, meant to force the country to bear the financial burden of the war. Although Germany ended
WAR
up paying only a small percentage of the reparations it was supposed to make, it was already stretched
financially thin by the war, and the additional economic burden caused enormous resentment.
Ultimately, extremist groups, such as the Nazi Party, were able to exploit this humiliation and
resentment and take political control of the country in the decades following.
Consequences

World War I killed more people--more than 9 million soldiers, sailors, and flyers and another 5 million civilians--
involved more countries--28--and cost more money--$186 billion in direct costs and another $151 billion in
indirect costs--than any previous war in history. It was the first war to use airplanes, tanks, long range artillery,
submarines, and poison gas. It left at least 7 million men permanently disabled.

World War I probably had more far-reaching consequences than any other proceeding war. Politically, it resulted
in the downfall of four monarchies--in Russia in 1917, in Austria-Hungary and Germany in 1918, and in Turkey in
1922. It contributed to the Bolshevik rise to power in Russia in 1917 and the triumph of fascism in Italy in 1922. It
ignited colonial revolts in the Middle East and in Southeast Asia.

Economically, the war severely disrupted the European economies and allowed the United States to become the
world's leading creditor and industrial power. The war also brought vast social consequences, including the mass
murder of Armenians in Turkey and an influenza epidemic that killed over 25 million people worldwide.

Few events better reveal the utter unpredictability of the future. At the dawn of the 20th century, most
Europeans looked forward to a future of peace and prosperity. Europe had not fought a major war for 100 years.
But a belief in human progress was shattered by World War I, a war few wanted or expected. At any point
during the five weeks leading up to the outbreak of fighting the conflict might have been averted. World War I
was a product of miscalculation, misunderstanding, and miscommunication.

No one expected a war of the magnitude or duration of World War I. At first the armies relied on outdated
methods of communication, such as carrier pigeons. The great powers mobilized more than a million horses. But
by the time the conflict was over, tanks, submarines, airplane-dropped bombs, machine guns, and poison gas had
transformed the nature of modern warfare. In 1918, the Germans fired shells containing both tear gas and lethal
chlorine. The tear gas forced the British to remove their gas masks; the chlorine then scarred their faces and
killed them.

Four years of war killed a million troops from the British Empire, 1.5 million troops from the Hapsburg Empire,
1.7 million French troops, 1.7 million Russians, and 2 million German troops. The war left a legacy of bitterness
that contributed to World War II twenty-one years later.

CULTURAL CONTEXT
It's a term referring primarily to the soldierpoets who fought in the First
WAR POETS

World War, of whom many died in combat. The best-known are Blundeb,
Brooke, Graves, Owen, Rosemberg, Hamilton, Thomas, and Sassoon. Most of
these writers came from middle-class backgrounds; many had been to public
schools and served as officers at the front. In fact, hundreds of war poets
wrote and published their verse between 1914 and 1918, often capturing the
initial mood of excitement and enthusiasm. Rupert Brooke established the cult
of the soldierpoet in England, though the tone of his work differed markedly
from writers who experienced later battles on the western front. Brooke's
striking good looks and five patriotic war sonnets written in December 1914,
coupled with his death in a troopship bound for Gallipoli, his burial at Skyros,
and the glowing Times obituary over Winston Churchill's initials, made him a
symbol of a mythical (or much mythologized) pre-war golden age ended by
conflict. In contrast to Brooke, the next generation of poets actually went to
the trenches and saw action. The reality appalled them. Owen, Sassoon,
Graves, Gurney, and Jones were all either wounded or shell-shocked, or both.
They wrote powerfully and poignantly about the effects of war on the bodies
and minds of men, the horror and the waste.
 It begins with the First World War. It is named for George V,
although he reigned from 1910 to 1936. The war effected a
fundamental change in English life and thought, a true start of a
new age, marked by a long and bitter struggle for national
Georgian Age in English Literature, 1914-1940
It refers to a series of anthologies showcasing
the work of a school of English poetry that
established itself during the early years of the
reign of King George V of the United Kingdom.

survival, by a flowering of aesthetic talent and experiment in The Georgian poets were, by the strictest

Georgian Poetry
the 1920s, and by the harshness of the Great Depression in definition, those whose works appeared in a
the 1930s. In 1940 England had become once more an series of five anthologies named Georgian
embattled fortress, destined to suffer six years of harsh attack Poetry, published by Harold Monro and edited
and the destruction of much of its finest talent. by Edward Marsh, the first volume of which
contained poems written in 1911 and 1912.
It was a rich period for the novel. The Edwardians The group included Edmund Blunden, Rupert
Galsworthy, Wells, Bennett, and Conrad continued to do fine Brooke, Robert Graves, D. H. Lawrence,
work, and in the 1920s experimental fiction was triumphantly Walter de la Mare, Siegfried Sassoon and John
developed by Dorothy Richardson, Virginia Woolf, and James Drinkwater.
Joyce. In the 1930s Aldous Huxley, Evelyn Waugh, and
Graham Greene joined Maugham and Lawrence in producing The Georgian poetry that was in vogue when
fiction that constituted a serious commentary on social and the WWI broke out was made in honor of the
moral values. The theater was marked by the social drama of reign of King George V. The term was first
Galsworthy, Jones, and Pinero, and the plays of ideas of Shaw. used by poets when Edward Marsh brought out
Maugham and Coward practiced the Comedy of Manners with in 1912 the first of a series of five anthologies
distinction. Although Thomas Hardy turned 74 in 1914, he called Georgian Poetry. Their work
was still producing extraordinarily powerful poetry, especially represented an attempt to wall in the garden of
that in the volume Satires of Circumstances (1914). Hundreds English poetry against the disruptive forces of
of other poems followed in the years before Hardys death, at modern civilization. But, as WWI went on,
87, in early 1928. Throughout the Georgian Age Yeats was a with more and more poets killed and the
major poetic voice, as was T. S. Eliot, whose The Waste Land survivors increasingly disillusioned, the whole
was the most important single poetic publication. The world on which the Georgian imagination
posthumous publication of poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins rested came to appear unreal. The patriotism
in 1918 added significantly to the new poetry. T. E. Hulme, for the country reflected in poets and soldiers
Wyndham Lewis, I. A. Richards, T. S. Eliot, and William of the beginning of the century became a
Empson created an informed, basically anti-Romantic, ridiculous anachronism in the face of the
analytical criticism. Modernism found its doctrines and its realities of trench warfare. This is the case of
voice and did much of its best work during the Georgian Age. the antagonism presented by the two war
It was a time of national troubles, of major war, of deep poets: Rupert Brooke, who wrote a patriotic
depression, and of declining empire, yet the literary sonnet reflecting soldiers glory of fighting for
expression of the age was vital, fresh, and varied. By the England, in contrast to Siegfried Sassoons
coming of the Second World War, the chief literary figures savage ironies which portraits the real
were turning inward, but they still showed little of the atrocities of the war.
diminishment that was to come.
 WILFRED OWEN

Biography (1) Biography (2)

1893-1918
Owen was an English poet whose work was characterised by
his anger at the cruelty and waste of war, which he
experienced during service on the Western Front.
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born 18 March 1893 in
Oswestry, Shropshire. After school he became a teaching
assistant and in 1913 went to France for two years to work
as a language tutor. He began writing poetry as a teenager.
In 1915 he returned to England to enlist in the army and
was commissioned into the Manchester Regiment. After
spending the remainder of the year training in England, he
left for the western front early in January 1917. After
experiencing heavy fighting, he was diagnosed with
shellshock. He was evacuated to England and arrived at
Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh in June. There he
met the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who already had a
reputation as a poet and shared Owen's views. Sassoon
agreed to look over Owen's poems, gave him encouragement
and introduced him to literary figures such as Robert
Graves.
Reading Sassoon's poems and discussing his work with
Sassoon revolutionised Owen's style and his conception of
poetry. He returned to France in August 1918 and in
October was awarded the Military Cross for bravery. On 4
November 1918 he was killed while attempting to lead his
men across the Sambre canal at Ors. The news of his death
reached his parents on 11 November, Armistice Day.
Edited by Sassoon and published in 1920, Owen's single
volume of poems contain some of the most poignant English
poetry of World War One, including 'Dulce et Decorum Est'
and 'Anthem for Doomed Youth.
Wilfred Owen is considered one of the greatest English poets of the 20th
century, and certainly the most memorable and vibrant voice of the calamitous
First World War.
On March 18th, 1893, Owen was born to an Anglican family in Shropshire. He
was interested in poetry at a very early age, reading Keats and Shelley in his
childhood. After graduating from Shrewsbury Technical School he was accepted
to London University but his family could not afford the tuition; thus, he took
a job as a lay assistant to the Reverend Herbert Wigan in Dunsden. During
this time he became critical of the church's role in society and developed a
prevailing compassion for the poor. When the war broke out in 1914, he was
teaching at the Berlitz School of English in France. He explained that visiting a
war hospital made him want to enlist, and he did so in England in 1915.
Owen became an officer in the Artists' Rifles in 1916. He was present at the
Battle of the Somme. By 1917 he appeared to be suffering from shellshock
and was sent to Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh for treatment. There he
met the poets Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon; the latter was particularly
influential on Owen's writing. Most of Owen's poetry for which he is known
was written in a massive creative burst during a one-year period beginning
August 1917. Some of his major poems include "Dulce et Decorum est", "Arms
and the Boy", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Disability", and "Futility". Owen
famously remarked "the poetry is in the pity".
On New Year's Eve of 1917 Owen wrote to his mother, "I go out this year a
Poet, my dear Mother, as which I did not enter it...I am a poet's poet." Only
five of his poems were published during his lifetime, however; two in the
hospital newsletter he edited, the Hydra, and three in the Nation. That year
Owen was awarded the Military Cross for bravery at Amiens.
Owen died on November 4th, 1918 trying to lead his men across the Sambre
Canal at Ors - one week before the Armistice was signed. Sassoon published
the first edition of Owen's work in 1920 after his death; the volume included
23 poems and a 24th was added the next year. This slim volume established
his inestimable reputation, and he was seen to be as influential as Eliot and
Yeats.

Owen only published five poems before his death.

COLLECTIONS
Poems, edited by Siegfried Sassoon (London: Chatto & Windus, 1920; New York:
Huebsch, 1921).
The Poems of Wilfred Owen, edited by Edmund Blunden (Chatto & Windus, 1931;
MAIN New York: Viking, 1931).
Thirteen Poems (Northampton, Mass.: Gehenna Press, 1956).
WORKS The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen, edited by C. Day Lewis (Chatto & Windus,
1963; New York: New Directions, 1964).
War Poems and Others, edited by Dominic Hibberd (Chatto & Windus, 1973).
Ten War Poems (Oxford: Taurus Press, 1974).
Wilfred Owen: The Complete Poems and Fragments, edited by Jon Stallworthy (New
York: Random House, 1983).
 Dulce et Decorum Est- Analysis

The poem is set in a battlefield of World War I . Soldiers all mentally and
physically ravaged by the exertions of battle.
And then it gets worse. Just as the men are heading home for the night, gas
shells drop beside them. The soldiers scramble for their gas masks in a frantic
attempt to save their own lives. Unfortunately, they don't all get to their masks
in time. Our speaker watches as a member of his crew chokes and staggers in
the toxic fumes, unable to save him from an excruciating certain death.
Now fast-forward. It's sometime after the battle, but our speaker just can't get
the sight of his dying comrade out of his head. The soldier's image is
everywhere: in the speaker's thoughts, in his dreams, in his poetry. Worst of
all, our speaker can't do anything to help the dying soldier.
Summary

Bitterly, the speaker finally addresses the people at home who rally around the
youth of England, and urge them to fight for personal glory and national
honor. He wonders how they can continue to call for war. If they could only
witness the physical agony war creates or even experience the emotional
trauma that the speaker's going through now the speaker thinks they might
change their views. In the speaker's mind, there's nothing glorious or
honorable about death. Or war itself.

The boys are bent over like old beggars carrying sacks, and they curse and
cough through the mud until the "haunting flares" tell them it is time to head
toward their rest. As they march some men are asleep, others limp with
bloody feet as they'd lost their boots. All are lame and blind, extremely tired
and deaf to the shells falling behind them.
Suddenly there is gas, and the speaker calls, "Quick, boys!" There is fumbling
as they try to put on their helmets in time. One soldier is still yelling and
stumbling about as if he is on fire. Through the dim "thick green light" the
speaker sees him fall like he is drowning.
The drowning man is in the speaker's dreams, always falling, choking.
The speaker says that if you could follow behind that wagon where the
soldier's body was thrown, watching his eyes roll about in his head, see his
face "like a devil's sick of sin", hear his voice gargling frothy blood at every
bounce of the wagon, sounding as "obscene as cancer" and bitter as lingering
sores on the tongue, then you, "my friend", would not say with such passion
and conviction to children desirous of glory, "the old lie" of "Dulce et decorum
est".

Language Used

Words suggesting exhaustion

In Dulce et Decorum Est Owen does not spare his reader any of the terror of the gas attack. In the
first two lines of the poem, the soldiers, many of whom would still have been in their teens, are
described as:
bent double
knock kneed
coughing
cursing through sludge.
Even though the third and fourth lines might seem to be positive, the rest towards which they
trudge is distant. These negative words counter any sense of hope and joy at the prospect of
moving away from the front and the haunting flares.
 The gas attack

Given how critical a gas attack was, it is chilling that Owen depicts soldiers fumbling l.9 with their
equipment. Most get their masks on only just in time but a nameless someone has succumbed to the
attack and it is his sufferings which will dominate the rest of the poem, as he cries out, stumbles and
struggles to breathe. It is he who will haunt Owens dreams as he plunges at him, a word which carries
threatening overtones, as if he is attacking Owen.
This nightmare scenario is heightened by words which gather in intensity: guttering, choking, and
drowning in l.16. The use of the word guttering is particularly unsettling. A candle gutters as it goes out
for lack of air, just as the man dies for lack of oxygen.

Reflection

As Owen moves away from the gas attack, addressing his anger to those at home, he employs direct and
powerful verbs. He suggests that, with such knowledge, those at home would not tell lies to children
ardent for glory.

Contrast Alliteration Repetition

Owen uses contrast to intensify
the horror experienced by soldiers
and his audience. For example, in
line 8 he takes the reader off guard:
the lethal gas-shells (or Five-
Nines) drop softly, as gentle rain
might, and are behind rather than
an overt danger in front. These
words seem impotent and
unthreatening, yet in line 9 Owen
punctuates the first four short
sharp words with exclamation
marks. Like the troops we are
shocked out of the somnambulant
atmosphere of the first stanza. The
shock of, Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!
is followed up by an ecstasy of
fumbling l.9. Owen emphasises the
panic by his use if the word
ecstasy, often associated with love
and passion but suggesting here
extreme actions of a very different
nature.
Owens use of repeated sounds
picks up the alliteration of the title.
Dulce and Decorum are the two
contentious, abstract nouns
meaning sweet and honourable, All is repeated twice in line 6 to
which he revisits in the final lines of
the poem. Joined as they are by the
similar sounds of et and est, they
set a pattern for the alliteration
which follows.
Each example emphasises the
horror of the event:
soldiers are Bent like beggars
l.1, who cough and curse. l.2
the hum of the m sounds of lines
5 and 6 sound like a grim lullaby -
Men marched asleep. Many had
lost their boots
But limped on .. All went lame
Owens use of alliteration builds as
the pain worsens. In the wagon
l.18 Owen exhorts us to watch
the white eyes writhing l.19 (the
last w being an example of eye-
rhyme rather than audible). Finally
we are asked to envisage
vile incurable sores on innocent
tongues l.24. This final alliteration
underlines the startling contrast
between the incurable nature of
the injury and the innocence of
the victim.
Owen also draws the readers
attention to the key actions and
themes of the poem by his use of
repeated short, single words:
ensure we are aware that no one
escaped
Gas! GAS!, capitalised on the
second use, jolts us into the
awareness of the terror and horror
of the attack
Lines 14 and 16 are end-
stopped with drowning., the
finality of the word and its
repeated use emphasising how
impossible it is for Owen to forget
the mans suffering
Similarly, the image of the mans
face / His hanging face l.19-20 is
impressed upon our memory by
being repeated
The repetition of the If .. you
construction at the start of lines 16
and 21 highlights Owens anger and
direct (almost accusing)
communication to his readers.
 Verb tenses
Tone
In stanza one of Dulce et Decorum Est Owen uses
the past tense to describe the plodding retreat The tone of this poem is angry and critical. Owens
from the battle field, as the men marched and own voice in this poem is bitter perhaps partly
turned and went. fuelled by self-recrimination for the suffering he
could do nothing to alleviate. Owen dwells on
In stanza two Owen moves the action first into explicit details of horror and misery in order to
the present continuous, demonstrating the maximise the impact he wishes to have on those
immediacy of action the men are fumbling, who tell the old Lie. The way in which he
fitting. Then he moves into the past continuous: addresses as My friend those with whom he so
someone was yelling whom Owen saw .. strongly disagrees is ironic.
drowning. This indicates the passage of time, yet
how the sight is still very real to Owen.
In stanza three Owens nightmares relive the scene
in the present tense - as the man plunges - and
present continuous the man keeps on guttering,
choking, drowning in an unending loop of action.
In stanza four the conditional verbs If .. you
could, If you could, you would not (l.17,21,25)
challenge the reader / My friend in the future to
share Owens nightmare and perhaps have the
chance to avert it.

Structure

Stanzas
The poem consists of four stanzas of various lengths. The first 14 lines can be read as a sonnet
although they do not end with a rhyming couplet, and instead the ab ab rhyme-scheme carries on
into the separate pair of lines which constitute the third stanza.
Whilst the initial fourteen lines depict the situation and the events which take place, the last
fourteen lines show the consequences of what has happened and Owens reflection on it. The
final four lines are his injunction to the reader to avert similar suffering in the future.

Versification
Rhythm
Stanza one is largely written using regular iambic pentameter, reflecting the relentless but, sadly, routine nature of
the horror the men experience. However, the opening spondees of lines 1, 2 and 5 serve to arrest our attention, as
does blood-shod and all blind in line 6.
The stumbling, lurching progress of the men through the sludge is conveyed by Owens use of caesura in the middle
of line 5-7. Then, for much of line 8, Owen reverses the metre to trochaic, subtly undermining the routine, just as the
shells will disrupt the mens trudge.
In stanza two the pentameter is disrupted by longer 11 syllable lines (l.9,11,14). The additional beat gives the sense
of being out of time. The pace and punctuation also changes to reflect the panic of the men, particularly with the
double spondees and emphatic punctuation of line 9.
In the short third stanza, the regularity of l.15 is overturned by the extra syllables and different metres of l.16 as if
the horrific sight is too overwhelming to be constrained by a regular poetic form.
For stanza four Owen uses additional beats to emphasise the particular horror of lines 20 and 24, echoing the
pattern of stanza two. He resists making everything neat and orderly. He needs us, through the uncomfortable beat
associated with the similes, to hear and feel the pain. By contrast, the hollow emptiness of the final line is illustrated
by writing only a trimeter followed by white space.
Rhyme
The heaviness and misery of the men is reflected in the slightly dull and routine ab ab rhyme-scheme. The udge
sound in English is frequently associated with thickness and limited mobility (l.2,4) just as the umble cluster connotes
a lack of precision (l.9,11). The long ing rhymes also have the effect of slow motion, replicating the horror of slow
drowning.
In the fourth stanza, the grim images of blood and cud (the bitter tasting, regurgitated, half-digested pasture chewed
by cattle) are emphasised both by their rhyme and their delayed position at the end of their respective lines (21 and
23). By rhyming glory( l.26) with mori (Latin for to die) (l.28) Owen makes a point of contrast and irony from the
two words which seem to be so much at odds with each other.
Other Characteristics

Criticism

Realistic approach

Use of simile, imagery, alliteration, etc.

Ornamented language.

Use of IF (making a supposition)

Shift from MEN to BOYS to CHILDREN= Intensification of the idea

Use of I (Second stanza)= the speaker becomes involved

The speaker shares his feelings ( Sell shock)

Use of my friend = shift the category. More personal

Symbolism. Disfiguration

Nightmares.

Line 20: religious alusion.

Alusion: Horace

Main themes: warfare, suffering, patriotism, reality (of that time

Analysis
"Dulce et Decorum est" is without a doubt one of, if not the most, memorable and anthologized poems in Owen's oeuvre. Its vibrant
imagery and searing tone make it an unforgettable excoriation of WWI, and it has found its way into both literature and history courses as a
paragon of textual representation of the horrors of the battlefield. It was written in 1917 while Owen was at Craiglockhart, revised while he was
at either Ripon or Scarborough in 1918, and published posthumously in 1920. One version was sent to Susan Owen, the poet's mother, with the
inscription, "Here is a gas poem done yesterday (which is not private, but not final)." The poem paints a battlefield scene of soldiers trudging
along only to be interrupted by poison gas. One soldier does not get his helmet on in time and is thrown on the back of the wagon where he
coughs and sputters as he dies. The speaker bitterly and ironically refutes the message espoused by many that war is glorious and it is an
honor to die for one's country.

The poem is a combination of two sonnets, although the spacing between the two is irregular. It resembles French ballad structure.
The broken sonnet form and the irregularity reinforce the feeling of otherworldliness; in the first sonnet, Owen narrates the action in the
present, while in the second he looks upon the scene, almost dazed, contemplative. The rhyme scheme is traditional, and each stanza features
two quatrains of rhymed iambic pentameter with several spondaic substitutions.

"Dulce" is a message of sorts to a poet and civilian propagandist, Jessie Pope, who had written several jingoistic and enthusiastic
poems exhorting young men to join the war effort. She is the "friend" Owen mentions near the end of his poem. The first draft was dedicated
to her, with a later revision being altered to "a certain Poetess". However, the final draft eliminated a specific reference to her, as Owen
wanted his words to apply to a larger audience.
 The title of the poem, which also appears in the last two lines, is Latin for, "It is sweet and right to die for one's country" - or,
more informally, "it is an honor to die for one's country". The line derives from the Roman poet Horace's Ode 3.2. The phrase was commonly
used during the WWI era, and thus would have resonated with Owen's readers. It was also inscribed on the wall of the chapel of the Royal
Military Academy in Sandhurst in 1913.

In the first stanza Owen is speaking in first person, putting himself with his fellow soldiers as they labor through the sludge of the
battlefield. He depicts them as old men, as "beggars". They have lost the semblance of humanity and are reduced to ciphers. They are wearied
to the bone and desensitized to all but their march. In the second stanza the action occurs poisonous gas forces the soldiers to put their
helmets on. Owen heightens the tension through the depiction of one unlucky soldier who could not complete this task in time - he ends up
falling, "drowning" in gas. This is seen through "the misty panes and the thick green light", and, as the imagery suggests, the poet sees this in
his dreams.

In the fourth stanza Owen takes a step back from the action and uses his poetic voice to bitterly and incisively criticize those who
promulgate going to war as a glorious endeavor. He paints a vivid picture of the dying young soldier, taking pains to limn just how unnatural it
is, "obscene as cancer". The dying man is an offense to innocence and purity his face like a "devil's sick of sin". Owen then says that, if
you knew what the reality of war was like, you would not go about telling children they should enlist. There is utterly no ambiguity in the
poem, and thus it is emblematic of poetry critical of war.
 SIEGFRIED SASSON

Biography
* 1886-1967
Siegfried Sassoon was born in 1886 in Kent. He was an English poet, writer, and
soldier. His father was part of a Jewish merchant family, originally from Iran and India,
and his mother part of the artistic Thorneycroft family. Sassoon studied at Cambridge
University but left without a degree. He then lived the life of a country gentleman,
hunting and playing cricket while also publishing small volumes of poetry. In 1915,
Sassoon was commissioned into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and went to France. He
impressed many with his bravery in the front line and was given the nickname 'Mad
Jack' for his near-suicidal exploits. He received a Military Cross for bringing back a
wounded soldier during heavy fire. His brother Hamo was killed in November 1915 at
Gallipoli.

* In the summer of 1916, Sassoon was sent to England to recover from fever. He went
back to the front, but was wounded in April 1917 and returned home. Meetings with
several prominent pacifists had reinforced his growing disillusionment with the war
and in June 1917 he wrote a letter that was published in the Times in which he said
that the war was being deliberately and unnecessarily prolonged by the government.

* As a decorated war hero and published poet, this caused public outrage. It was only
his friend and fellow poet, Robert Graves, who prevented him from being court-
martialed by convincing the authorities that Sassoon had shell-shock. He was sent to
Craig Lockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh for treatment. Here he met, and greatly
influenced, Wilfred Owen. Both men returned to the front where Owen was killed in
1918. Sassoon was posted to Palestine and then returned to France, where he was
again wounded, spending the remainder of the war in England. He died in 1967.

* On 11 November 1985, Sassoon was among sixteen Great War poets

commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner. The
inscription on the stone was written by friend and fellow War poet Wilfred Owen. It
reads: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."

Biography (2)
Siegfried Sassoon was born on 8 September 1886 in Kent. His father was part of a Jewish merchant family,
originally from Iran and India, and his mother part of the artistic Thorneycroft family. Sassoon studied at
Cambridge University but left without a degree. He then lived the life of a country gentleman, hunting and
playing cricket while also publishing small volumes of poetry.

In May 1915, Sassoon was commissioned into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and went to France. He impressed
many with his bravery in the front line and was given the nickname 'Mad Jack' for his near-suicidal exploits. He
was decorated twice. His brother Hamo was killed in November 1915 at Gallipoli.

In the summer of 1916, Sassoon was sent to England to recover from fever. He went back to the front, but
was wounded in April 1917 and returned home. Meetings with several prominent pacifists, including Bertrand
Russell, had reinforced his growing disillusionment with the war and in June 1917 he wrote a letter that was
published in the Times in which he said that the war was being deliberately and unnecessarily prolonged by the
government. As a decorated war hero and published poet, this caused public outrage. It was only his friend and
fellow poet, Robert Graves, who prevented him from being court-martialled by convincing the authorities that
Sassoon had shell-shock. He was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh for treatment. Here he met,
and greatly influenced, Wilfred Owen. Both men returned to the front where Owen was killed in 1918.
Sassoon was posted to Palestine and then returned to France, where he was again wounded, spending the
remainder of the war in England. Many of his war poems were published in 'The Old Huntsman' (1917) and
'Counter-Attack' (1918).

After the war Sassoon spent a brief period as literary editor of the Daily Herald before going to the United
States, travelling the length and breadth of the country on a speaking tour. He then started writing the near-
autobiographical novel 'Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man' (1928). It was an immediate success, and was followed
by others including 'Memoirs of an Infantry Officer' (1930) and 'Sherston's Progress' (1936). Sassoon had a
number of homosexual affairs but in 1933 surprised many of his friends by marrying Hester Gatty. They had a
son, George, but the marriage broke down after World War Two.
He continued to write both prose and poetry. In 1957, he was received into the Catholic church. He died on 1
September 1967.
Main Works

POETRY: PUBLISHED ANONYMOUSLY Counter-Attack and Other Poems collects some of Sassoon's best war
Poems, privately printed, 1906.
poems, all of which are "harshly realistic laments or satires,"
Orpheus in Diloeryium, J. E. Francis, 1908.
Morning Glory, privately printed, 1916.
POETRY
Twelve Sonnets, privately printed, 1911.
Poems, privately printed, 1911.
An Ode for Music, privately printed, 1912. The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon included 64 poems of the war,
Hyacinth: An Idyll, privately printed, 1912. most written while Sassoon was in hospital recovering from his
Amyntas, privately printed, 1913.
injuries.
(Under pseudonym Saul Kain) The Daffodil Murderer, Being the
Chantrey Prize Poem, John Richmond, 1913.
Discoveries, privately printed, 1915.

PROSE
The Memoirs of George Sherston. In these, he gave a thinly-
(The Weald of Youth (autobiography), Viking, 1942. fictionalized account, with little changed except names, of his
Siegfried's Journey, 1916-1920 (autobiography), Faber, 1945, Viking, wartime experiences, contrasting them with his nostalgic memories
1946. of country life before the war and recounting the growth of his
Meredith, a Biography, Viking, 1948. pacifist feelings.
(Author of introduction) Isaac Rosenberg, The Collected
Poems, Chatto & Windus, 1962.
Letters to a Critic, introduction and notes by Thorpe, Kent Editions,
1976.
Siegfried Sassoon Diaries, 1923-1925, Faber & Faber (Boston, MA),
1985. Some readers complained that the poet displayed little patriotism,
Siegfried Sassoon Letters to Max Beerbohm: With a Few Answers, Faber while others found his shockingly realistic depiction of war to be too
& Faber (Boston, MA), 1986. extreme. Even pacifist friends complained about the violence and
graphic detail in his work.
Further Readings

BOOKS
Sassoon, Siegfried, The Memoirs of George Sherston, Doubleday, After the war Sassoon spent a brief period as literary editor of the
Doran, 1937. Daily Herald before going to the United States, travelling the length
Sassoon, The Old Century and Seven More Years, Viking, 1939. and breadth of the country on a speaking tour. He then started
Sassoon, Siegfried Sassoon Diaries, 1915-1918, edited by Rupert writing the near-autobiographical novel 'Memoirs of a Fox-hunting
Hart-Davis, Faber, 1981. Man' (1928). It was an immediate success, and was followed by
Sassoon, Siegfried Sassoon Diaries, 1920-1922, edited by Hart-Davis, others including 'Memoirs of an Infantry Officer' (1930) and
Faber, 1983. 'Sherston's Progress' (1936).
PERIODICALS
Bookman, March, 1929.
In 1957 Sassoon became a convert to Catholicism, though for some
Books and Bookmen, November, 1973.
time before his conversion, his spiritual concerns had been the
OBITUARIES: PERIODICALS predominant subject of his writing. These later religious poems are
usually considered markedly inferior to those written between 1917
Newsweek, September 18, 1967.
and 1920. Yet Sequences (published shortly before his conversion)
New York Times, September 3, 1967.
has been praised by some critics
Times (London), September 4, 1967.

Does it Matter? - Analysis

The poem presents a series of rhetorical questions posed to

a soldier that, apparently, has lost his legs, his sight, and his
dreams (or you could read it as three different soldiers who
suffer these afflictions). We learn that he can no longer do
Summary they things he used to be able to do (like hunt), and that
nobody around him really seems to care (people come in
and eat and pay not attention; others realize he is a soldier
and don't "worry a bit").
Siegfried Sassoons poem Does It Matter? is a sensitive poem of which questions society of issues from war. The poem is
brief, consisting of 3 stanzas with 4 lines each, there is a rhyming pattern throughout, and most lines even have an equal
number of syllables.

The poem shows a negative way of war, describing feelings and thoughts soldiers go through once they finish their service.

The poem emphasises Superficial kindness is emphasised throughout the poem, expressing that society feels towards the
soldiers whos suffered from war. Potential injuries and wounds such as; losing your legs, sight and reoccurring memories of
the war accentuates the fact no one really cares about ones body and minds condition due to war, specifically showing the
way they are treated by the public from the soldiers perspective.

The poem tells the story about how society expects the soldiers to resume to their previous life. This can be seen in the line,
Theres such splendid work for the blind... indicating that they are suppose to continue with lives like it was before the war
even if they become blind. The soldiers are expected to forget the gruesome, horrifying scenes and memories of war to
move on with their previous lives. Once the war is over and the soldiers have returned. The people are able to forget and
not worry about the war veterans.

Because this poem is from such a new perspective, it makes such an impact on readers. Sassoon is a war veteran; he served
numerous times during World War One and has cleverly written this poem expressing his thoughts in a subtle way making
the reader think.

Similar to the poem A Working Party, this poem contains a few themes, which can be acknowledged by the reader. This
poem signifies the importance of soldiers hard work and dedication to their country, however, are not honoured properly.
The soldiers are expected to go on with their daily lives after their war service. Which is where is we should show our
appreciation and most importantly be thankful for the challenges and hardships that are continually faced by soldiers for our
freedom and current lifestyle.

The poet has used literary techniques such as sarcasm through the entire poem, and its very effective because he asks the
question Does it Matter? throughout the poem, trying to point out how society treats a soldier who has lost so much
during the war. The rhyming of ind in the first and second stanza kind, mind, blind, are used to represent how society will
accept the soldiers after the war no matter the state they are in. Juxtaposition also adds to this effect using blind and light.

Physical disability is further emphasised through the

The poem Does it Matter? emphasises the
lasting physical and psychological effects of war
on soldiers in order to challenge societys
propaganda-fuelled view that war was glorious.
The title and the repetition of this rhetorical
question emphasises the pointlessness of war
while leading the responder to question their
own attitudes about war. The combination of
rhetorical questioning and direct address in the
line does it matter?- losing your legs? further
supports this purpose by shocking the reader and
forcing them to confront the horrific outcomes of
war. The reader is forced to turn their attention
away from the glory of war to the very real
consequences of war in particular, physical
disability. The effects of disability are explored
throughout the poem through the use of irony in
the repetition of people will always be kind,
which creates a sense of helplessness that
contrasts dramatically/powerfully with the
glorious image of the strong soldier presented by
the propaganda of the time.
representation of the soldiers blindness, which is initially
introduced by the rhetorical question Does it matter? losing
your sight?. This question is followed by the ironic statement
Theres such splendid work for the blind, which confronts the
reader by mimicking and ridiculing societys ignorance of the
psychological effects of becoming disabled. This creates a tone of
outrage and evokes an empathetic response from the reader. It
also leads the reader to question their own attitudes towards
disabled veterans and towards the war itself. The juxtaposition
between blind and light in the poem further emphasises the
effects of disability. Thought the idea of turning your face to
the light is symbolic of hope as this reflects the life warmth of
the sun this is juxtaposed with the suggested darkness of the
pit. As such, the reader gains the impression that even though
this man is alive and therefore has some hope of living a good
life, he is also limited by his disability and his memories of the
war: you sit on the terrace remembering dreams in the pit
This reveals that no matter how far he may be from war, he is
constantly haunted by the experience. The audience is
confronted here with the lasting psychological effects of war,
which contributes to Sassoons overall purpose, which is to
challenge societys perceptions of the glorious nature of war.
Instead, the reader is forced to engage with the soldiers ongoing
struggle, and his need to escape his memories: you can drink
and forget.
 Use of sarcasm
Use of rhetorical questions to emphasize the idea
Resorting to repetition and shift between Does it matter and do they matter
Antagonism between the use of they and you
Division between you (disabled) and people (fit)
Use of you to catch the readers attention. To think and consider themselves in that position.
Allusion to WWI and trenches (L12)
Other characteristics
Use of symbolism (light, eating and hunting)
Description of the physical and mental damage suffered by the soldiers
Superficial kindness that society felt towards soldiers
Criticism to patriotism
Form: Anapestic trimeter
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCA
Not ornamented lexis

Glory of Women- Analysis

Glory of Women is a poem about how blinded women are by the supposed honor and glory of war. They are ignorant of the hardships and
pain that all men at war have to go through, instead seeing only the fame that they believe results afterwards.

The speaker in this poem is the author, Siegfried Sassoon. He speaks as a soldier who has experienced sufferings of war to all women in
general, who stay at home, fantasizing about their husbands, sons, fathers, and any other men in their lives for their bravery in
participating in the war.

This poem is written in an Italian (Petrachan) sonnet form, with a rhyme scheme of A B A B C D C D E F G E F G. It has a rhythm of Iambic
Pentameter, which contains ten syllables per line, and read stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, etc. There arent a lot of techniques
used , but many different cases of alliteration is used; for example, heroes, home in line one and blind with blood in line eleven. Strong
imagery is used to emphasize how terrible war is. Lines eleven and fourteen give gruesome pictures of the aftermaths of war, trampling
the terrible corpses blind with blood, and his face is trodden deeper into the mud. This is done because the poet wants the reader to
have a clear mental image of how grisly war is, and also remember what it results in. Using blood and corpses to paint images had a strong
effect on stressing the brutality of war. Glory of Women conveys its message very well because of the ways the poet words his topic. The
beginning octave describes women and their actions, thoughts, and feelings about men at war.

Sassoon tells of how women love men that are heroes, how they take delight in hearing dangerous war experiences, how they crown a man
for his acts of bravery, and how women mourn the memories of those who perished in the war. Then the poet proceeds in the following
sestet to inform women of what they had never thought of: that war itself is not about honor and glory; in the end, what it really comes
down to is pain, loss, and most often of all, death.

Siegfried Sassoon displays his feelings towards war very strongly in this poem. His tone is very obviously bitter and angry about the fact that
women dont realize all the difficulties men have to endure to survive war. He resents how no one felt the need to change their opinion
and educate them about war. This leads to the theme being how women are unaware of the harsh realities of war. Because of this,
Sassoon wrote this poem both to teach and to mock women for their ignorance. This is also reflected in the title of the poem,

Glory of Women, which is greatly significant because although glory generally refers to someone or somethings reason for pride, the poet
uses this word and twists its meaning to indicate sarcasm. The mood of this poem is one of bitterness.

The poet tried to put his feelings into the poem and spread his opinions through it. The poem is very effective because it changes its tone
between the octave and the sestet, from speaking of the good opinions women have of war, to how wrong women are in not realizing how
terrible war really is.
 Suicide in the Trenches- Analysis

12 verses 3 Stanzas
Purpose
S1 and S2 :
Rhyme scheme: AABB Story of a boy
To show that war leads to terrible problems rhyme S1 = Childhood and
Psychological and physical problems innocence
Suicide S2= Adulthood and
Iambic tetrameter shell shock
S3 : Truth of our actions
Accusation of ignorant
Use of irony and imagery ways

Simple diction
Meaning

Life of a soldier before going to war

Depression of the young soldier before he Effect of Loss of

commits suicide war on Themes hope
young souls
Description of the attitude of the people that
do not go to war

Tone

Changes throughout the poem Attitude

Similar to
Sarcastic
Beginning: Middle: End: Glory of
and angry
Women

Happiness Innocence Sadness Suicide Anger Accusation

Sassoon shows the depression of the young soldier
The depression of the young soldier before he commits suicide is clearly displayed in the poem. At the start
of the poem, the image of a happy, young, and perhaps rather nave boy is placed before us;
Simple tells us that he is innocent, perhaps rather nave, and doesnt understand the concept of war.
Grinned at life in empty joy suggests to us that he was pleased by anything, a happy carefree young man.
He was young and had no worries because he enjoyed life and did as he pleased. He made life seem easy and
happy even when times were bad. It also given us a notion of how immature the boy turned into a soldier and
sent to war must have been.
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark tells us that the dark did not affect him. We can gather from
this line that perhaps he would never sleep soundly again after spending time in the trenches, as dark meant
the threat of attack there.
Whistled with the early lark creates an image of a rather enthusiastic young man who awoke bright and
early, and was happy to be awake and living. Again, we can gather from this that in the trenches, men were
not happy to wake, and to them, living meant pain. As lark is a spring bird, it seems to represent here
youthfulness.
However, after this stanza, the image of a happy young man is obliterated by the dark, depressing time that is
put before us, and we begin to feel the depression of the young man;
Cowed and glum tells us that he is no longer rising early with the lark, he is now longer grinning, but hiding
away, depressed and upset. The depression of the soldier is clearly emphasized in this line; cowed tells us
that he is turning away, intimidated and scared of war. Glum sums up his emotion; he is depressed, gloomy,
tired, upset.
Crumps and lice and lack of rum this line adds to the depression of the young soldier by building up the
depressing setting surrounding him. Crumps shows that destruction is still occurring around him whilst he is
merely sitting cowed and glum on his own, loud explosions surrounding him whilst he sinks into depression.
Lice and lack of rum shows the dirtiness of the trenches; lice tells us of dirty, grotty surroundings and
spreading diseases in the trenches, whereas lack of rum shows the meagre supplies the soldiers had whilst
out on the front line. Lack of rum could also represent that there was no alcohol to take the edge off of the
boys depression; everything he felt he felt one hundred percent.
Rum was also given to soldiers before they went to the front line, to steady nerves and ready them for attack.
Therefore, this line could also mean that they young soldier is so nervous he has drank all the rum in an
attempt to steady his nerves, and it has not worked.
Winter trenches again creates a contrast to the previous stanza; as a lark is a spring bird, we gathered
from the first stanza that Sassoon was describing the spring months; sunny, bright, fresh, all plants and animals
coming out of hibernation. This season matches the young boys personality rather well. In the second stanza,
the season is described as winter; dark, dull, gloomy, glum. In turn, this season again represents the boys
personality; as the season has changed, so has he.
Put a bullet through his brain this line shows us how the trenches symbolize the harsh reality of war in
the poem. Throughout the year till winter, the trenches transform a carefree, innocent and happy boy into a
depressed, boy who put a bullet through his brain. The alliteration of the letter b here also further creates
a harsh, brutal and bitter sound that adds on to the bitter mood, especially at the climax of the story told -
the suicide.
No one spoke of him again this line shows us how many soldiers who fought and died in the trenches
were forgotten. The fact that no one spoke of him again shows that all the suffering him and many others
went through was forgotten; as death was such a common occurrence in the trenches, they all eventually
merged into one, and the individual personalities of the soldiers who died were forgotten.
 The structure of the poem also adds to the stark change the boy has suffered throughout the war. Sassoon
uses the same structure that a childrens rhyme usually has, and this is perhaps intended to emphasize that this
boy, turned into a soldier and driven to suicide, was still just a boy.
The depression of the young soldier is also shown to be shared by many; the eye- catching title Suicide in the
Trenches is evidence of this fact. The word trenches further emphasizes that the depression the young
soldier feels is felt throughout all the trenches, and therefore many others in war.
The juxtaposition between the first two stanzas adds to the effect intended upon the reader by Siegfried
Sassoon. He wants us to feel the harsh reality of war; cold, unjust, harsh and depressing, and the image of a
happy young man driven to suicide by war certainly emphasizes this point. This jarring contrast makes the
boys death a lot sadder and brings out sympathy in the reader.

Sassoons view of the crowds which greet the soldiers on their return from the trenches

The last stanza is very effective in displaying Sassoons view of the crowds. Throughout this stanza a bitter,
sarcastic, sneering and rather angry tone is used;
You smug-faced crowds The use of you makes the reader feel as if Sassoon is addressing the reader,
naming us all guilty of the smug-faced cheering and clapping of the soldiers. Smug-faced makes us feel as if the
crowd, to the soldiers, are rather conceited, thinking that they are being patriotic and contributing to the war
effort by cheering the soldiers. Sassoon successfully conveys that he feels the public are unable to relate and
empathize with the soldiers because they cannot possibly understand what war is like without experiencing it
for themselves.
This quotation has a link to the previous stanza; no one spoke of him again; the crowds cheer those on who
come home and think that they care and understand about the war, but with so many dead and forgotten, this
pretence seems rather ridiculous when a boy has just died and been forgotten as if he never existed.
With kindling eye represents the crowds eyes lighting up when the soldiers go by. This line is a metaphor;
kindling represents the starting of a fire, so here represents the light shining in the eyes of the crowd. Perhaps
this line is used to show that the crowd assumes a superficial countenance when the soldiers go by; they want
to show that they are patriotic, that they understand and appreciate what the soldiers have been through,
when clearly Sassoon is saying that they dont; the crowds view participation in the war as a glorious thing,
when the soldiers know themselves there is nothing glorious about the trenches and the horrors that occur
there.
The word kindling also reveals that Sassoon views the crowds as hypocritical; they think that they understand
what war is like, that they appreciate everything the soldiers have done for them, when in reality they dont
care or feel appreciative of what the soldiers have done. Therefore, the word kindling reveals the hypocrisy
Sassoon feels is behind people who support war.
The hell where youth and laughter go this line, in my opinion, is perhaps the most effective one in the
poem. The hell imagery used in this line creates an evil and horrific atmosphere for the reader. The word hell
is very effective; hell is a place people are sent for punishment; the home of evil and the devil, and the crowds
are cheering the soldiers on when they return from what they think is a glorious place. The contrast of the
publics view of war; glorious, patriotic and honorary, creates a contrast with Sassoons view of war; hell, dark,
depressing, evil.
Sassoon sums up the message of his poem in this last line;
He is trying to tell the public that they are sending their soldiers off to hell; to a place that they will never
forget; to a place that they may never leave. Sassoon wants the public to realise war is not glorious, it is evil,
depressing, dark and gloomy; it not only kills thousands of men, but destroys the lives of those who survive.
The youth and laughter of their boys is going to be taken away; if those soldiers return from the war, the
 smiles on their faces will be gone forever. The crowds are sending their friends and family to hell, and cheering
them on when they come home. Sassoon uses this to convey his thoughts on war; that the whole concept of
it is wrong.
We can perhaps gather from the last stanza that Sassoon regrets going to war, and is angry that nave young
soldiers are signing up and being recruited, with no idea where they are going. The bitterness with which he
addresses the crowds back home shows that he is trying to tell them that they dont understand, can never
understand what the soldiers have to go through out in the trenches, and cheering them on when they return
is a rather conceited, nave action to make. Sneak home and pray youll never know is possibly a line telling
people who view war as glorious and cheer the soldiers on should slink away in shame and give some real
though to what war is really like.
 RUPERT BROOKE
Biography (1)
1915-1887
English poet Rupert Chawner Brooke was born on August 3,
1887. The son of the Rugby Schools housemaster, Brooke
excelled in both academics and athletics. He entered his
fathers school at the age of fourteen. A lover of verse since
the age of nine, he won the school poetry prize in 1905.
A year later, he attended Kings College, Cambridge, where
he was known for his striking good looks, charm, and
intellect. While at Cambridge, he developed an interest in
acting and was president of the University Fabian Society.
Brooke published his first poems in 1909; his first
book, Poems, appeared in 1911. While working on his
dissertation on John Webster and Elizabethan dramatists, he
lived in the house that he made famous by his poem The Old
Vicarage, Grantchester.
Popular in both literary and political circles, he befriended
Winston Churchill, Henry James, and members of the
Bloomsbury Group, including Virginia Woolf. Although he was
popular, Brooke had a troubled love life. Between 1908 and
1912 he fell in love with three women: Noel Olivier, youngest
daughter of the governor of Jamaica; Ka Cox, who preceded
him as president of the Fabian Society; and Cathleen Nesbitt,
a British actress. None of the relationships were long lasting.
In 1912, after his third romance failed, Brooke left England to
travel in France and Germany for several months.
Upon his return to England, Brooke received a fellowship at
Kings College and spent time in both Cambridge and London.
In 1912 he compiled an anthology entitled Georgian Poetry,
1911-12, with Edward Marsh. The Georgian poets wrote in an
anti-Victorian style, using rustic themes and subjects such as
friendship and love. While critics viewed Brookes poetry as
too sentimental and lacking depth, they also considered his
work a reflection of the mood in England during the years
leading up to World War I.
After experiencing a mental breakdown in 1913, Brooke
traveled again, spending several months in America, Canada,
and the South Seas. During his trip, he wrote essays about his
impressions for the Westminster Gazette, which were
collected in Letters From America (1916). While in the South
Seas, he wrote some of his best poems, including Tiare
Tahiti and The Great Lover.
He returned to England at the outbreak of World War I and
enlisted in the Royal Naval Division. His most famous work,
the sonnet sequence 1914 and Other Poems, appeared in
1915. On April 23, 1915, after taking part in the Antwerp
Expedition, he died of blood poisoning from a mosquito bite
while en route to Gallipoli with the Navy. He was buried on
the island of Skyros in the Aegean Sea.
Following his death, Brooke, who was already famous,
became a symbol in England of the tragic loss of talented
youth during the war.
Biography (2)
Rupert Brooke was born on 3 August
1887. His father was a housemaster at
Rugby School. After leaving Cambridge
University, where he became friends
with many of those in the 'Bloomsbury
Group', Brooke studied in Germany
and travelled in Italy. In 1909 he
moved to the village of Grantchester,
near Cambridge, which he celebrated
in his poem, 'The Old Vicarage,
Grantchester' (1912). His first
collection of poems was published in
1911. In 1913, Brooke became a fellow
of King's College, Cambridge, his old
college.
In the same year, he left England to
travel in North America, New Zealand
and the Pacific islands. He returned
home shortly before the outbreak of
World War One. He was
commissioned into the Royal Naval
Division and took part in the
disastrous Antwerp expedition in
October 1914. In February 1915, he
set sail for the Dardanelles. On board
ship he developed septicaemia from a
mosquito bite. He died on 23 April
1915 on a hospital ship off the Greek
island of Skyros and was buried in an
olive grove on the island.
Rupert Brooke caught the optimism of
the opening months of the war with
his wartime poems, published after his
death, which expressed an idealism
about war that contrasts strongly with
poetry published later in the conflict.
Major Works
Poetry Prose
Georgian Poetry, 1911-1912 (1912) Lithuania: A Drama in One Act (1915)
1914, and Other Poems (1915) John Webster and the Elizabethan
The Collected Poems of Rupert Drama (1916)
Brooke (1915) Letters From America (1916)
The Collected Poems of Rupert Democracy and the Arts (1946)
Brooke (1918) The Prose of Rupert Brooke (1956)
The Poetical Works of Rupert The Letters of Rupert Brooke (1968)
Brooke (1946) Rupert Brooke: A Reappraisal and
Selection From His Writings, Some
Hitherto Unpublished (1971
Letters From Rupert Brooke to His
Publisher, 1911-1914(1975)

The Soldier- Analysis

The Soldier is a sonnet in which Brooke glorifies England during the First World War. He
speaks in the guise of an English soldier as he is leaving home to go to war. The poem
Summary represents the patriotic ideals that characterized pre-war England. It portrays death for ones
country as a noble end and England as the noblest country for which to die.
into account:
Concepts to take

Sonnet: it is fourteen lines in length, and it almost always is iambic pentameter, but in
structure and rhyme scheme may be considerable leeway
Italian sonnet: it is divided usually between eight lines octave- using two rimes
arranged a a b b a a b b a, and six lines-sestet- using any arrangement of either two of
three rhymes: c d c d c d and c d e c d e are common pattern
English sonnet: is composed of three quatrains and concluding cuplets riming a b a b
cdcdefefgg
Iambic pentameter: every line of iambic pentameter contains five iambs. Now, an
iamb is a two-syllable pair that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable. Eg. That is forever England. There shall be (exception in line 8)
Brooke's poem combines elements of both the Italian (structurally) and the English
sonnet (rhyme scheme). The octave is like an English sonnet, and its rhyme scheme is
ABABCDCD. The sestet, however, takes the form of an Italian sonnet and has a rhyme
scheme of EFGEFG.
 The Soldier. It's not "a soldier," but "the soldier," as in "the soldier, par excellence," or
Title "the ideal soldier." That, at any rate, is what Brooke's title seems to be telling us his
poem is about: a generic but ideal (or model) soldier, one who understands that he may
die but also believes his death will benefit his country (England). As a result of his
sacrifice, after all, "some corner of a foreign field" will be "forever England," no matter
what happens.
To a certain extent, Brooke's poem reflects what many Europeans at the time would
have considered an ideal soldierone who loves his country very deeply (the words
England or English occur four times in this very short poem). That soldier would also see
his own death as a sacrifice that will benefit his country. And his reward for this
sacrifice is honor in the afterlife. The soldier's death is portrayed as not really the end,
but only the beginning of a new life in heaven.

SPEAKER

The speaker of "The

Soldier," is the
soldier which was
The Realist The Idealist The Patriot
Brookes reality
(autobiographical
poem).

When you start a

Another way to read
poem with "If I
the speaker's
should die," then The way that the
"English heaven,"
you're already speaker deals with
though, is just to see
confronting a cold, the threat of death is
it as a natural This patriotism, then,
hard truth that most hardly realistic. He
extension of his love is part of what
people would rather imagines a kind of
of country. He ultimately blinds the
not think about. As a heaven that will be
celebrates his speaker to the very
solider, though, the just the like home,
upbringing there, real, impending
speaker is thrust full of the same
promises to claim horror of World
face-to-face with his thoughts, sights,
more land for it in War I. His speaker is
own mortality, and sounds, and even
the war, and a great example of
so this poem is his dreams of his native
portrays heaven as the kind of nave,
way of working land. Now, you
nothing more than overly-romantic, and
through that could say that this
an extension of jingoistic thinking
imminent possibility. makes our speaker a
England. In other that could send
(Historically, for real patriot, but you
words, he's saying millions of people
Brooke, that could also make the
that England will go into armed conflict
possibility became a case that he's sort of
on foreverboth in against each other.
sad reality when he deluding himself. He
terms of earthly
went off to war and couldnt witness the
conquest, and in
died of infection not atrocities of war.
terms of heavenly
long after this poem
immortality.
was written.)
 First stanza -analysis
In the first stanza (the octave of the sonnet) stanza, he talks about how his grave will be England herself, and
what it should remind the listeners of England when they see the grave.

Hypothetic situation (by using if) / Apostrophe eg. Line 1: If I should die, think only this of me:
Apostrophe: consist in addressing sb. Absent or sth nonhuman as if it were alive and present and could
reply what is being said
The speaker begins by addressing the reader, and speaking to them in the imperative: think only this of
me. This sense of immediacy establishes the speakers romantic attitude towards death in duty. He
suggests that the reader should not mourn. Whichever corner of a foreign field becomes his grave; it
will also become forever England. He will have left a monument of England in a forever England. He
will have left a monument in England in a foreign land, figuratively transforming a foreign soil to England.
The suggestion that English dust must be richer represents a real attitude that the people of the
Victorian age actually had.
.
Alliteration- eg. Line 2: that theres some corner of a foreign field
Alliteration: the repeated sound of the first consonant in a series of multiple words, or the repetition of
the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables of a
phrase.
Imagery-
Imagery: the representation through languge of sense experience
There's a lot of nature in this poem. Fields, dust, flowers, rivers, sunsit's all over the place. The
relationship between the speaker and the natural world is very close, even harmonious. When he dies,
he returns to the earth (as dust). Moreover, as a child, he was "washed" and "blest" by the rivers and sun
of his homeland (England). When he dies, his heaven will look like the England he knew as a child
including its natural characteristics. Eg-
o Line 2: The speaker imagines acquiring a "corner of a foreign field" for his home country,
England. Nature is endowed with English-ness here, as it will be again soon.
o Line 4: in that rich earth a richer dust concealed; (imagery of the country)
o Line 6: gave once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
Personification
Personification: consist in giving attributes of a human being to an animal, an object or an idea.
o Eg. Line 5: The speaker is a "dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware." England can't
really do these things, so this is a case of personification.
o Line 6: England gave the speaker "flowers to love" and "ways to roam." England can't actually
give anything, so this is an example of personification.
 o Line 8: The speaker was "washed" by England's rivers, and "blest" by her suns. Neither the
suns nor the rivers can wash or bless, so this is also personification.
Religious connotations
Eg: Line 8: The soldier also has a sense of beauty of his country that is in fact a part of his identity. In the final
line of the first stanza, nature takes on a religious significance for the speaker. He is washed by the rivers,
suggesting the purification of baptism, and blest by the sun of home.

Second stanza - Analysis

Religious connotation- Christian point of view
In the second stanza, the sestet, the physical is left behind in favor of the spiritual. If the first stanza is about
the soldiers thought of this world and England, the second is about his thoughts of heaven and England (in
fact, an English heaven).
In the sestet, the soldier goes on to tell the listener what to think of him if he dies at war, but he presents a
more imaginative picture of himself. He forgets the grave in the foreign country where he might die, and he
begins to talk about how he will have transformed into an eternal spirit. This means that to die for England
is the surest way to get a salvation: as implied in the last line, he even thinks that he will become a part of an
English heaven.
The heart will be transformed by death. Line 9: All earthly evil will be shed away. (a Christian view). Once
the speaker has died, his soul will give back to England everything England has given to him- in other words,
everything that the speaker has become. In the sestet England takes on the role of a heavenly creator, a part
of the eternal mind of God. In this way, dying for England gains the status of religious salvation. Wherever
he dies, his death for England will be a salvation of his soul. It is therefore the most desirable of all fates.
Personification: eg-
o line 11: gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given
o line 12:he sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
imagery: eg-
o Line 10: The speaker describes a "pulse in the eternal mind." The "eternal mind" refers to God's
mind (eternal here means that it has never been created and will never die). God, of course, lives in
heaven, which is described as being just like England.
o Line 14: the speaker describes an "English heaven" in the last six lines of the poem.
o Alliteration: eg- Line 12 gives us "sights and sounds," line 13 has "laughter, learnt," and line 14 ends
with "hearts" and "heaven."
 OTHER ASPECTS TO CONSIDER

Pre-War Idealism England

Rupert Brooke is often criticized for not being realistic about The word "England" or "English" occurs six times in this
war. To put it another way, his poetryand the war sonnets poem. That's a lot for a poem that is only 14 lines! In this
in particular, of which "The Soldier" is one of the most poem England is like a mother to the soldier; she gave birth
famousis idealistic. to him, nourished him, and made him who he is. But England
In "The Soldier," for example, the speaker says nothing about is also immortal. Even though, in death, the soldier must
the horrors of war. The mass murder of millions of young leave England, it's only for a little while. When he dies, the
soldiers over inconsequential plots of land, for example, is soldier will go to a heaven that's just like the England he left
nowhere mentioned or even hinted at in Brooke's poem. behind on Earth.
Instead, the speaker suggests that dying on the battlefield
while claiming more land for one's country is a noble, a
heroic, even an ideal way to go out.
Moreover, the poem says nothing about the gaping void the
soldier's death will leave in the lives of his friends and family.
All we get is a description of a peaceful death that leads the
soldier to an even more blissful "English heaven." The
realities of wardeath, sadness, and lossare not to be
found in "The Soldier," or Brooke's work in general