war poetry (they want you)

“That night your great guns unawares”

• Channel firing

• addresses living soldiers using 2nd person to highlight role in ongoing violence

• Symbolise destructive power of human warfare: booming mistaken for judgement highlighting magnitude of humanity’s self-destruction

“And broke the chance window-squares”

• Channel firing

• Symbolise fragility of faith and morality in face of human aggression

• Damage to a sacred space suggests war undermines divinity

“The world is as it used to be”

• Channel firing

• emphasises the unchanging nature of war and relentless march of soldiers to death, echoing futility of human conflict

“They do more for Christ’s sake”

• Channelfiring

• religion was a common propanganda tool

• Lamenting that the living acts without any regards for christs teaching

“Hells floor for so much threatening”

• Channel firing

• Metaphor- humans have created a “2hell” which they will die on

• Upcoming war is not favourable in gods eyes showing hardy condemnation

“I blow the trumpet if indeed”

• Channel firing

• traditionally symbolise judgment da, representing divine reckoning

• Humanity war and judgment enough on themselves

“Roaring their readiness to avenge”

• Channel firing

• personification & animalistic imagery to present humans as Brutus when given free-will

Regular ABAB rhyme scheme

• Channel firing

• reflects fatalistic reoccurrence of war

• Iambic tetrameter a traditional, clash of new old-shows no change

“Destroying dragon wakes from sleep”

• Happy I England now

• patriotic imagery to persuade the men that war will give sense of purpose

• Fairytale imagery to establish idea that soldiers are going to go on a great adventure

• Destroying dragon could also refer to the Germans who are presented as an enemy commonly defeated by knights whose purpose is to protect their princess, suggesting freeman is presenting England as the princess that needs protecting

“Happy is England now, as never yet”

• Happy is England now

• personification of England as a motherly figure

• Connotes with positivity, form of propaganda to convince en of duty

“Happy is England now, as never yet”

• Happy is England now

• personification of England as a motherly figure

• Connotes with positivity, form of propaganda to convince en of duty

“Happy is all her dark woods, green fields, towns”

• Happy is England now

• personification protecting beauty of homeland

• Contrasting colour imagery represents juxtaposition of Britain’s pre and post war

Irregular rhyme scheme

• Happy is England now

• slows tempo to mirror solemn patriotic anthems

• Reflects gradual loss of innocence while trying to convey excitement and jingoism

“With sun and youth eternal round our ways”

• The call

• youth is eternal like thee sun and will live onto the next life

• Repeating pattern of war, loop

• Religious connotations: heaven/ death is eternal

“The wonderful white dawns of frost and frame”

• The call

• “White dawns”: foreshadows contrast between the home front and home line

• “Frost and flame”: oxymoron-conditions vary from day to day / alliteration shows harmony and harmony

“Or summer’s, stealthy wakening that came”

• The call

• sibilant- peaceful and calm before war

• Peaceful childish imagery of summer contrasts with military language

“Beauty and sorrow hand in hand with slow”

• The call

• juxtaposition of “beauty” and “sorrow” suggesting they have t appreciate the beauty of the sunset because it is short lived like their lives

• Sibilance makes it romanticised and slows down pace

“And time still hovered on reluctant wings”

• The call

• connected with beauty ad sorrow through personification and use of wings

• Young men are between childhood and adulthood

• Oxymoron- internal conflict within soldiers (masculinity)

“Went strongly forth to do the work of men”

• The call

• expectation of masculinity/ only men are supposed to die for country

• Alternatively, it is the “work of men” is to kill and protect

• No longer children, have no choice to grow up

“Gird ye then, i give you freely”

• England to her sons

• Deliberate archaic language to replicate traditional chivalric propaganda - continuations of tradition (masculinity) - war is continuous

• References cycle of ongoing younger generations going to war

“Fearing but dishonours breath”

• personification of “dishonour” suggests importance of avoiding it because dishonour is the real enemy

• Fear of failing mother “england” who they are supposed to protect because it is their duty

“Steeled to suffer uncomplaining”

• england to her sons

• Juxtaposes dishonour (breath) is weak and Steele is strong (men)

• Silence is what was desired despite suffering, questioned decisions was seen as weakness

“Loss and failure, pain and death”

• England to her sons

• juxtaposition of semantic field of hope and loss

• Emphasises lack of “hope” felt by soldiers to provide their country with hope and safety

“Go, and may the god of battles”

• England to her sons

• imperative, propaganda posters- had a women saying go (England is a women)

• War was justified by religion - ironic- have to turn to other religions for comfort

Free verse + slow pace

• Field manoeuvres

• helps build tension to reflect how soldiers felt

“I can feel the damp earth”

• Field manoeuvres

• deliberately downplays significance of war to highlight feelings of individual moments in real life, people are not aware of their own historical impacts in moments

“Glitters a silver segment of road”

• Field manoeuvres

• semantic field of wealth/ decadence positive atmosphere

• What the war was presented as - successful/ brief

“Pace in long ranks the blank fields of heaven”

• Field manoeuvres

• An almost longing for before war or death escape

• Shown through conflict o natural war imagery

“The flutter of a finch’s wings about my head”

• field manoeuvres

• Semantic field of fragility and intertia because they are trapped in war and in moments before action

• Enforced by heightened senses and awareness: “distant thunder/ shrill cry of a mosquito”

“My spirit follows after the gliding clouds”

• Fled manoeuvres

• Simple, disconnected toe, no real passion or engagement

• Speaker does not feel like a soldier/ combatant/ killer

• Perhaps foreshadowing the change/ loss of innocence he experiences

“By all the glories of the day”

• Before action

• repetition of “by all” continues throughout create a somber tone - religious style vocabulary

• Abstract noun connote with religion - also a reference to beauty of nature that happened before which shows natural cycle of earth even through suffering

“By that last sunset touch that lay”

• Before action

• finality, ending,, reminiscent of prayers

• Reflects on life/beauty, faith/blessings of life thus far

“Laughter of unclouded years,”

• Carefulness and freedom tat was stolen from soldiers because of war

“Ere the sun swings his noonday sword”

• After action

• (Ere) medieval chivalry of oncoming deaths: optimistic sacrifice to God/ continuous human nature sacrifices

• (Noonday sword): focuses on death

• Sun is personified suggesting that the sun by setting is killing the soldiers because with each passing day they came closer to death

“Most say goodbye to all this”

• (must): obligation, duty to country and god- reluctance to leave beautiful life and innocent childhood

• Soldiers knew they weren’t coming back

Meter

• After action

• written in common meter- reflect it being hymn/ plea

Refrain

• after action

• Change in refrain reflects his changing view throughout war and how his belief in the cause slowly started t lose motivation and belief in the war

• “Soldier”: wanted to serve his country

• “Man”: wanted to be able to survive hardship of fear like a “man”

• “Die”: would rather die quickly instead of living knowing that he exists just to die

• Change shows personal plea to God

“I have a rendezvous with death”

• Rendezvous

• verb “have” established inevitability and acceptance of death

• Capitalisation indicates personification: anthromorphis , grim reaper

“And apple blossoms fill the air”

• Rendezvous

• semantic field of spring/ life- connotations of rebirth, juxtaposing the death that is inevitable

• Speakers death is certain but world will not be affected- world carries on

“It may be i shall pass him still”

• Rendezvous

• Enjambment creates irregular moments of pace/ drama as speaker expects death

• (May be): modal verbs create flippant tone suggesting death/ danger are common + soldiers are desensitised

• Caesura: enforces flippant tone becuase it suggests finality doesn’t alarm them

“I shall not fair that rendezvous.”

• Rendezvous

• cyclical structure- reinforces the inescapability of death

• End stopped line in a place where he could die, emphasise potential ending place

Irregular rhyme scheme

• Rendezvous

• reflects how death is unpredictable

• Lack of control soldiers have over death

Form: regular quatrain

• In the grass: haltside by roadside

• when soldiers put on a uniform they have a structured, centralised, constricted life

“I feel my sunk heart ache”

• in the grass

• Sensory language juxtaposes the peaceful implications of the title suggesting that he is experiencing an feeling so many things that rather than interacting with his surroundings, he is trapped with an inability to do anything at all

“Is it sudden terror burdens my heart?”

• in the grass

• Derealisaion/ disassociation (shell shock symptoms) - psychological lens- separation from real experience

• Enjambment + caesura reflect exhausted/ manic mind - enforced by irregular meter showing disarray

“Terrible pleasure”

• in the grass

• Oxymoron highlights mixed emotions throughout

• Wants to welcome dear but acknowledges this is cowardice

“I do not fear: i rejoice”

• In the grass

• (Fear): death is welcome

• Celebrates (biblical) death/action

“When you see millions of mouthless dead”

• Untitled

• symbolises to show dead and soldiers who weren’t allowed to speak up and forced to be silent

“Say not…That you’ll remember”

• Untitled

• (say not): sacrificing life didn’t benefit them because they won’t actually be remembered, only those in power will

• Caesura: forcing people to pause and remember lives lost to the futile war

“The blind eyes see not you tears flow. Nor honour”

• untitled

• (No honour): honour won’t save them or benefit them

• Dead won’t know your mourning because they can’t feel anything

“It is easy to be dead”

• Untitles

• easier to be dead than fight in the war

• Honour/. Duty presented as a burden

“Great death has made all his for evermore”

• untitles

• “(Great death): death is personifies because soldiers belong to him now

• (For evermore): consequences of war is final

“You are blind like us”

• to Germany

• Opening line established argument - directly addresses Germany

• Opposing all war

• Caesura: sense of finality, no changing thirst of war

“Fields of thought confined”

• metaphor: imprisoned by jingoistic and nationalist beliefs

• British never attempted to challenge Germany

“We stumbled and we do not understand”

• to Germany

• (We): collective noun: sense of unity, spite being against each other they are united by their jingoistic beliefs binding them

• (Do not understand): humanity keep on making same mistakes over and over again despite having experiences it multiple timess

“And hiss and hate. And the blind fight the blind”

• to Germany

• Alliteration: emphasise soldiers forced hatred

• Caesura: shows dichotomy of their beliefs

• Otis of lack of understanding and empathy, would rather be ignorant then believe they are the same

“View again”/“new won eyes”/“wonder”

• suggest that the will eventually stop and return to traditional alliance is inevitable because cycle of human nature

“But until peace, the storm, the darkness and the thunder and the rain”

• To Germany

• Polysyndetic listing

• Reflects ongoing nature of war

“Blow out, you bugles, over the rich dead”

• the dead

• Plosive “B” sound helps to portray action on front line

• Imperative demand/ commanding bugles to blow welcoming war

• Capitalisation of D gives dignifies respect

• Oxymoron- suggests death is earned + valued when part of war

“But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than Gold”

• The dead

• developing paradox: in life they were poor but death has enriched them

• Parenthesis/ caesura emphasises act of dying itself

• Dying is presented as an opportunity to be historic/ martyrdom

“These laid the world away poured out the red”

• the dead

• “Laid the world”= Euphemistic/ gentle phrase renouncing life

• (Poured): biblical glorification of loss of your - metaphor for bloodshed

• (Red): metonymy for blood suggesting beauty of sacrifice

“Sweet wine oof youth: gave up the years to be”

• the dead

• “ sweet wine of youth”: youth is precious/ intoxicating- hard to sacrifice but a big sacrifice

• Giving up youth as a sacrifice: rather giving up their sons and their loves for”immortality”

• Enjambment mirroring pour action

“As a king/ a royal wage/ nobleness”

• the dead

• Extended metaphor in which the “king” is warfare which pays the loyal soldiers a opportunity to live a life of purpose + reason to be proud (which perhaps Brooke was missing)

Shakespearean sonnet + iambic pentameter

• the dead

• Patriotic glorification + love letter to soldiers

“They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young”

• mesapatamia

• Refrain structure establishes poems central tragedy- dead can’t return

• Emphasis- permanence of death and irreversibility f betrayal

“The eager an the whole- hearted whom we gave”

• Mesopotamia

• Describes soldiers with admiration passive construction hints at culpability of government- gave them away to die + incompetent leadership

“But the men who eft them thriftily to die in their own dung?”

• Mesopotamia

• Bitterly ironic- suggesting cost cutting measures led to those men dying - visceral condemnation of those who failed to provide

“Shall. They come with years and honour to the grave”

• Mesopotamia

• Reference to the lac of medical provision given to the dying’

• Rhetorical question criticises those in power for propaganda that suggests dying fr a country was an honour

“Our dead shall not return to us, while Day and Night divide”

• Mesopotamia

• Juxtaposition suggests that there is no amount of time that will make up for lives lost

“Shall we not threaten and be angry for an hour”

• Mesopotamia

• Rhetorical questions- angry at the loss of. Soldiers rather than the loss of. Lives - challenged public complacency

“How softly and swiftly they have sidled back to power”

• Mesopotamia

• Sneakily returning to normal power system after war

• Sibilance reinforces this

“The shame that they have laid upon our race”

• Mesopotamia

• collective national shame, no compensation possible not just military failure

Irregular line lengths

• mesapataia

• Irregular line lengths and encampment create a sense of barely controlled fury