Poetry of World War I Essay Example For Students

Poetry of World War I Essay Excerpted from Collected Poems, 1949 or the soldiers who went off to fight in World War l, literature was the main form of entertainment. In 1914 there was virtually no cinema, writes historian Paul Fusel in The Great War and Modern Memory; there was no radio at all; and there was certainly no television. Fusel continues, Amusement was largely found in language formally arranged, either in books and periodicals or at the theater and music hall, or in ones own or ones friends anecdotes, rumors, or clever structuring of words. For British soldiers in particular, writing poetry was one of the chief sources of pleasure. Britain formed its army with volunteers, and many of these volunteers came UT of Great Britains high-quality public school system, the British equivalent of private preparatory high schools and cool- I have a rendezvous with Death/ At some disputed barricade/ When Spring comes back with rustling shade/ And phlebotomys fill the air-?I Death/ When Spring brings back blue da ys and fair. From I Have A Rendezvous with Death by Alan Seeker 115 Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) English poet Rupert Brooke is perhaps the most famous of the patriotic poets, poets who celebrated Englands entry into World War l. Born on August 3, 1887, to a family of educators, Brooke excelled at school. He became part of a ricer of poets at Cambridge University who rebelled against the poetry of their parents generation and hoped to create new verses that were realistic, bold, and vital. They were known as the Georgian poets. Brooke published his first collection of poems in 1911 and made his name by contributing to Georgian Poetry, a book containing selected works by different poets, published in 1912. British poet Rupert Brooke. (Corgis Corporation. Reproduced by permission. ) Like many other educated young Englishmen, Brooke responded to the declaration of war in 1914 with patriotic fervor. He had tired of a world grown old ND cold and weary and hoped to find glory in the war. His sonnets (fourteen-line poems) about the thrill of going off to war to fight for his country were published and became wildly popular in England. Brooke never saw action in the war; he was on his way to fight the Turks at Galileo when he contracted blood poisoning from an insect bite on his lip. He died on the island of Cross in the Aegean Sea on April 23, 1915. Legs in the United States. Many British soldiers were therefore well-educated men who appreciated poetry. British soldiers had a special relationship with literature. British schooling was based n the idea that understanding the poetry of the past makes people good citizens. Thus, all British students were familiar with a wide range of poets, from ancient Greek poets to those more recent, such as British writer Thomas Hardy. Many soldiers carried with them to the front a standard volume called the Oxford Book of English Verse, a collection of 116 World War l: Primary Sources important poetry; others had recent publications of poetry sent to them. Such books were extremely popular at the front, for they provided a diversion from the horror and tedium of war. Fusel quotes the story of Herbert Read, who was mailed a copy of a book of erase by poet Robert Browning: At first I was mocked in the dugout as a highbrow for reading The Ring and the Book, but saying nothing I waited until one of the scoffers idly picked it up. In ten minutes he was absorbed, and in three days we were fighting for turns to read it, and talking of nothing else at meals. Schooled in poetry, many British soldiers turned to writing poetry to record their reactions to the war. And as it turned out, World War I produced more poetry than any war before or since. Hundreds of volumes of war poetry were published; according to John Lehmann, author of The English Poets of the First World War, There was a period, during and directly after the War, when almost any young man who could express his thoughts and feelings in verse could find a publisher and a public. Poets-? including Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Swanson, Wilfred Owen, Edmund Blunder, Alan Seeker (the rare American), Robert Graves, Isaac Rosenberg, and many others-?recorded all the various ways that soldiers experienced the war, from the first longings for glory to the final sickening confrontation with death. Many of these poems are now forgotten, but many others-? such as the ones included below-?are still remembered and taught. These poems eating view of the first modern war. Alan seeker (1888-1916) The only major American war poet, Alan Seeker was born in New York City in 1888. Seeker attended Harvard College, where he dabbled in poetry and began to develop a reputation as a freethinker (someone who does not follow the conventions of his peers). After graduation he returned to New York City, but he grew to dislike life in America; he felt that Americans were uncivilized and incapable of enjoying lifes true pleasures, such as fine wine, good food, and art. In 1912 Seeker moved to Paris, France. When World War I began, Seeker leaped at the chance to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, a division of the French army that accepted enlistments from foreigners. Seeker hoped to find in war the intensity and excitement that he craved. Seeker served in the foreign legion for nearly two years, seeing action in battles at Gaines and Champagne, but he was bored whenever he was out of battle. â€Å"The Monument,† by Elizabeth Bishop EssayThese laid the world away; poured out the red Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be Of work and Joy, and that unopposed serene, That men call age; and those who would have been, Their sons, they gave, their immortality. Who has matched us with His hour: Who has allowed us to be here at this important moment in history. Naught: Nothing. Save: Except. 119 Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth, Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain. Honor has come back, as a king, to earth, And paid his subjects with a royal wage; And nobleness walks in our ways again; And we have come into our heritage. Have a Rendezvous with Death I have a rendezvous with Death At some disputed barricade, When Spring comes back with rustling shade And apple-blossoms fill the air-? When Spring brings back blue days and fair. It may be he shall take my hand And lead me into his dark land And close my eyes and quench my breath-? It may be I shall pass him still. On some scarred slope of battered hill, When Spring comes round again this year And the first meadow-flowers appear. God knows there better to be deep Pillowed in silk and scented down, Where Love throbs out in blissful sleep, Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath Where hushed awakenings are dear But Eve a rendezvous with Death At midnight in some flaming town, When Spring trips north again this year, And I to my pledged word am true, I shall not fail that rendezvous. Dearth: Shortage of, lack. Rendezvous: A prearranged meeting. Nigh: Near. I have sought Happiness, but it has been A lovely rainbow, baffling all pursuit, Baffling all pursuit: Always out of reach. 120 And tasted Pleasure, but it was a fruit More fair of outward hue than sweet within. Renouncing both, a flake in the ferment Of battling hosts that conquer or recoil, There only, chastened by fatigue and toil, I knew what came the nearest to content. For there at least my troubled flesh was free From the gadfly Desire that plagued it so; Discord and Strife were what I used to know, Heartaches, deception, murderous Jealousy; By War transported far from all of these, Amid the clash of arms I was at peace. Sonnet X: On Returning to the Front After Leave Apart sweet women (for whom Heaven be blessed), Comrades, you cannot think how thin and blue Look the leftovers of mankind that rest, Now that the cream has been skimmed off in you. War has its horrors, but has this of good-? That its sure processes sort out and bind Brave hearts in one intrepid brotherhood And leave the shams and imbeciles behind. Now turn we Joyful to the great attacks, Not only that we face in a fair field Our valiant foe and all his deadly tools, But also that we turn disdainful backs On that poor world we scorn yet die to shield-? That world of cowards, hypocrites, and fools. A flake in the ferment / Of battling hosts that conquer or recoil: As an individual soldier caught in a clash between great nations, the poet is comparing himself to a flake-?perhaps of snow-? caught in a ferment, or storm. Chastened: Subdued or worn out. Apart: Apart from; other than. Things to remember while reading the poems of disillusionment by Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Swanson: ; The following five poems by Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Swanson take a very different view of war. These are poems 121 of harsh disillusionment. The authors seem to realize that there is no higher calling to war but merely a bitter struggle to survive. Though the romantic and optimistic poems of Alan Seeker and Rupert Brooke were very popular early in the war, the work of Owen and Swanson was much more popular late in the war and afterwards. The change reflected in these memos is said to mark the emergence of modern literature, which focuses more on the perceptions of common people than earlier literature does. Wilfred Owen. (The Granger Collection. Reproduced by permission. ) It seemed that out of battle I escaped Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped Through granites which titanic wars had groined. Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned, Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred. Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared With piteous recognition in fixed eyes, Lifting distressful hands, as if to bless. And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall,-? By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell. Groined: Opened holes in. That visions face was grained: The mans face was etched with pain. Flues: Chimneys of of disillusionment by Wilfred Owe ; The following five poems by Wills Swanson take d very different view Literature tot the Greet war: Poetry, merely d bitter struggle to survive Though the romantic and optimist and Swanson was much more poll powers is said to mark the emerge the perceptions tot common people than earlier literal Strange Meeting Wilfred Owen By Wilfred Owen It seemed that out of battle I escape Down some profound dull tunnel,