Comparative Essay
How can different perceptions about one topic be expressed in poetry? The main theme that the two sets of poems convey is war, but it’s expressed in different point of views through the use of diction that builds tone. The tones of these poems play a big role in conveying the differences between the different eras that these poems are written in, and shows how societies have changed from the Victorian era till the time of World War I.
The diction and tone in Borden and Owen’s poems is so much different than the diction and tone in Lovelace and Tennyson’s poems due to different perspectives and point of views. In all four poems the main idea is war, but each set conveys a perspective of war, a positive perspective
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In Richard Lovelace’s To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars, although the poem is written to say farewell to the mistress because the speaker is going to sacrifice himself and is going to war, it is playful and romantic. This poem mainly focuses on how romantic it is for someone to go fight in a war.
In Alfred Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade, the one is set to be serious and respectful. The poem is about how soldiers who went into battle should be honored for their doing, and that war places soldiers under extreme stress and pressure. The poem 's diction keeps emphasizing on death and the horrors of it which is intense. The era that this poem was written in influenced the tone because at that time no matter if the battle is won or lost the soldiers who sacrificed themselves should be honored no matter what, and should be acknowledged.
In Mary Borden’s The Song of The Mud, the tone is sarcastic and ironic but still gruesome about war and going into the wars, the title of this poem is a great example of how ironic Mary is about war; in this title the reader would infer “song” is joyful and positive but then “mud” is negative and unpleasant. She believes that wars strip soldiers of their value and that no human being should experience the horrors of
Part I: Scansion and Analysis This analysis is going to be over Robert Frost’s poem “Range Finding” divided into two stanzas symbolizing the effects of war through the comparison of nature. The rhyme scheme is (abbaabba ccdeed) ultimately giving the poem a smooth and calming flow. This rhyme scheme indicates that the poem is a Petrarchan sonnet also known as an Italian sonnet. Although the poem does have a rhyme scheme, it doesn’t have any type of meter to the way it read.
“The Charge of the Light Brigade”, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, affects my understanding of the real events behind the narrative poem in the following ways. Tennyson used repetition and metaphors and rhyme to deliver his message that battle is intimidating, deathly, and heroic. As depicted in “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, war can be intimidating. A phrase that is repeated twice is “Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them...”
The poems Remains, by Simon Armitage and War Photographer, by Carol Anne Duffy both discuss the topic of war. In both poems, you can see how war affects people and how memories of what they have seen haunt them forever. In War Photographer, attempts are made to put order to the chaos created by war, unlike Remains, which shows how chaos is created. The theme of war is present in both poems as something to be remembered. However the memories are unwanted and the reader sees them turn into nightmares.
Both Ted Hughes and Wilfred Owen present war in their poems “Bayonet Charge” and “Exposure”, respectively, as terrifying experiences, repeatedly mentioning the honest pointlessness of the entire ordeal to enhance the futility of the soldiers' deaths. Hughes’ “Bayonet Charge” focuses on one person's emotional struggle with their actions, displaying the disorientating and dehumanising qualities of war. Owen’s “Exposure”, on the other hand, depicts the impacts of war on the protagonists' nation, displaying the monotonous and unending futility of the situation by depicting the fate of soldiers who perished from hypothermia, exposed to the horrific conditions of open trench warfare before dawn. The use of third-person singular pronouns in “Bayonet
For in the text it states that “That night your great guns unawares, / Shook all our coffins as we lay,” (Hardy 1,2) this imagery also brings forth the concept in which explains the darkness and the idea that going toward is like going to your death. This theme about war being like death is consistent in both the poems for they coincidently allude to death when speaking about the actions of
One of the things that happened in World War I that changed poets opinion on war was the mass death that occurred in the war. In total the casualties add up to about 37 million. That is more than half of the soldiers that were mobilized. The total number of deaths shows how much pain there was for so many people when they found their loved ones to be dead. That had to impact a lot of people all over and poets must've seen how badly War had hurt not only soldiers but everyone.
The poem aims to glorify soldiers and certain aspects of war, it goes on to prove that in reality there really isn 't good vs bad on the battlefield, it 's just a man who "sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call, And only death can stop him now—he 's fighting for them all.", and this is our hidden meaning.
Whitman is known for his grim and realistic poems depicting war as a result of his time as a volunteer nurse in the American Civil War. During the war, he saw the horrible results of battle in piles of amputated limbs and field littered with bodies. It is no wonder that after his time as union nurse he would write poems that were transfixed with the tragedies of war and their victims. This obsession with death combined with his fierce nationalism blended with the beauty of nature has made Whitman remembered as one of the great romantic poets. “The Dirge for Two Veterans” is one of his greatest works and uses these themes to create a vividly clear picture of tearful funeral procession.
‘Remains’ by Wilfred Owen is a war poem that presents an unnamed conflict where the soldier shoots the looter, but is unsure whether the man was armed or not. If the latter case, the shooting would have been unnecessary and would be thought as an act of murder. This acts as an emotional conflict arising to the soldier due to the situation. Similarly, in ‘Poppies’, the mother suffers from an emotional conflict arising from her yearning for her son as the mother seems to be speaking to the memories of her son. By the use of metaphor and imagery, both poets offer an emphasis on the idea of internal conflict arising to the persona of each poem.
One’s view of poetry is extremely personal. With over fifty-five different formal styles of poetry to choose from (Kennedy & Gioia 681-717) no two individual’s tastes will coincide, the same can be said for poets. No one will argue that Walt Whitman and Herman Melville have vastly different techniques for chronicling the events they experienced. This is especially true for the author’s interpretations of events leading up to, throughout, and after the American Civil War. Although they approached their subject from the same vantage point, that of the Union or Northern Army, both author’s writing styles could not be more different.
Firstly within the poems, both Owen and Harrison present the horrific images of war through use of visual imagery. “And leaped of purple spurted his thigh” is stated. Owen describes the immediate action of presenting the truth of war as horrific and terrifying . The phrase “purple spurted” represents the odd color of the blood which was shedded as the boulder from the bomb smashed his leg in a matter of seconds. The readers
War Poetry Assignment, Part One Thomas hardy Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet, he lived from 1840 and 1928, he is one of the most renowned poets and novelists in English history. He was born in the English village of higher Rockhampton in the country of Dorset, his father was a stonemason. Hardy advanced in life both socially and economically through architecture but in the mid 1860’s, a lack of funds stopped him from achieving his ambitions of university education.
This is made all the more nationalistic by other assessments of the charge as a complete and utter disaster; the pride expressed in this poem conjures a moral victory for the home front out of a complete and utter defeat in foreign lands. Through the use of honour in association with the military in both victory or defeat, Tennyson conveys both patriotism for England and militarism. The Charge of the Light Brigade clearly shows the influences present on Tennyson through its wording and
There are many similar themes that pervade both Wilfred Owen’s Anthem, for Doomed Youth, and George Herbert’s Prayer, such as war, and prayer. Strong emotions regarding both of those themes are conveyed through the juxtaposition of imagery, the personification of weaponry, and the use of metaphor to explain the conceptual. Language is also a critical element in both sonnets, shown through the use of alliteration in Anthem, and flowing lyricism in Prayer, demonstrating it is approached in strikingly different ways to achieve the desired effect. The prominence of religion and religious symbolism is an important factor of both poems, which reflects the importance of religion in matters such as war, and more obviously, prayer.
The comparison between Shelley’s “England in 1819” and Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” surfaces distinct difference the scope of the theme of history. Given the fact that both of the poets experienced different eras between the Romanticism and the Victorianism. This influences their way of writing and also the ideas conveyed. The main factor to be discussed for the theme of history regarding the poems of choice and the respective poets is regarding the livelihood of the poets that affected the writing of the poems.