World War One Poetry Essay Example

World War One Poetry Essay Compare and contrast the purpose and style of Wilfred Owens First World War poetry with the purpose and style of contemporary recruitment poems. The Ballad of Peace and War- Wilfred Owen Dulce et Decorum Est- Wilfred Owen Anthem for Doomed Youth- Wilfred Owen Whos for the Game?- Jessie Pope Fall In- Harold Begbie What passing bells for those who die as cattle? Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth Who wants a turn to himself in the show? Jessie Pope, Whos for the Game? We will write a custom essay sample on World War One Poetry specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on World War One Poetry specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on World War One Poetry specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The First World War began in 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on the 28th of June. The heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was shot by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student. As retribution for this, Austria-Hungary demanded that Serbia punished those involved with the shooting. The conflict escalated as the Austro-Hungarian government deemed that Serbia had not fulfilled this demand and declared war. The major European powers had joined the war within a few weeks due to complex international alliances. Thus the original war had become the first global military conflict; the Entente or Allied powers, the British Empire, Russia, France and eventually Italy ; America, against the Central powers, the Austro-Hungarian, German and Ottoman Empires. World War One is also described as the first modern war and is particularly noted for the use of trench warfare, which resulted in an estimated 8.3 million military casualties. When the war broke out in August 1914, Britain relied on a small professional force, differing from other European powers which had vast conscript armies. However, as the number of casualties grew and details of the soldiers harsh experiences in the French trenches reached the British public, men became reluctant to join the army. The reduction in volunteers led to the launch of a nationwide campaign by the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener. This campaign aimed to develop new armies made up of millions of volunteers. As part of the campaign, various newspapers published recruiting poems. These poems, combined with a nationwide poster operation, helped to create immense social pressure to join the army upon the nations young men. The recruiting poems were written by people, such as Jessie Pope, who had never experienced war and the poems catchy styles with simple rhyme schemes reflect their purpose of trying to encourage young men to join the war effort. The cheerful recruiting campaign, however, was a stark contrast to the harsh realities of trench warfare. Wilfred Owen drew on his horrific experiences in the war to write powerful anti-war poetry, with guidance from Siegfried Sassoon. Owen had been eager to join the army and was sent to France at the end of 1916; the horrors of battle quickly changed Owen and his writing. The sombre style of Owens poems reflected their purpose of illustrating the reality of war, contradi cting the pro-war campaign. This recruiting campaign, however, became unnecessary after conscription was introduced in 1916. Before his own experiences in battle, Owen was a supporter of the war, drafting the pro-war poem The Ballad of Peace and War. Owen was eager to volunteer for his country and left his teaching position in France to do so, telling his mother I now do most intensely want to fight. The following spring, Owen returned home a changed man, suffering from shell-shock. The Ballad of Peace and War is a stark contrast to Owens later poems, demonstrating how his experiences in the trenches changed his opinion of war. The Ballad of Peace and War has a simple ABAB rhyme scheme, as did the recruitment poetry, and a patriotic style. In this poem, Owen declared Oh meet it is and passing sweet to live at peace with others, but sweeter still and far more meet to die in war for brothers These lines illustrate Owens original belief that it is meet or fitting to die in order to save the soul of England. This was a belief that Owen later mocked, when he had returned from battle, in Dulce et Decorum Est. Dulce et Decorum Est, one of the best-known poems of the twentieth century, demonstrates Owens departure from his early writing style, demonstrated in The Ballad of Peace and War. The title of the poem, itself a mockery of Owens earlier work, originates from a poem by the Roman poet Horace. The phrase was much-quoted throughout the nineteenth century, when the British Empire was at its peak, particularly during the Boer War and at the start of World War One. The complete phrase, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori., means It is sweet and fitting to die for your country. Owen refers to this phrase as the old Lie and uses it to attack the stay-at-home supporters of the war. The style of the poem is a contrast to the ballad style of Owens original poetry. Although Owen has continued to use the simple ABAB rhyme scheme, Dulce et Decorum Est displays Owens use of grammar and enjambment to give the poem a sense of disorientation, whilst also mocking the simple rhyme scheme used in recruit ment poetry such as Whos for the Game? by Jessie Pope, showing their inaccuracy to his audience. Owen also uses short sentences and capital letters in lines such as Gas! GAS! to convey the sense of panic he experienced in the trenches. Another technique employed by Owen in Dulce et Decorum Est is the use of sensory language to create graphic imagery. Lines such as Gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, conjure up horrific images in the mind of the reader. All of these techniques help Owen to achieve his purpose of expressing the horrors of trench warfare to the reader, thereby counteracting the effects of pro-war recruitment poetry. Dulce et Decorum Est was originally addressed directly to Jessie Pope, a poet and war enthusiast, who wrote poems such as Whos for the Game? in support of the recruitment campaign. Owen refers to Pope in the final lines of the poem as my friend and declares that Pope would not be so quick to encourage children to join the army if she had experienced life in the trenches. These lines are used by Owen to emphasise the fallacies of the recruitment cam paign, which was led by those without experience of trench warfare. Jessie Pope was a well-known journalist who helped the recruitment campaign by writing war poetry for the Daily Mail and the Daily Express. Her writing reflected popular attitudes within society during the First World War and Pope herself has become infamous after Owens reference to her in his first draft of Dulce et Decorum Est. Popes poem Whos for the Game? compares war to sport in order to achieve the purpose of recruitment poetry, which is to persuade men to join the army. Using lines such as Wholl toe the line for the signal to Go!? and colloquial language such as It wont be a picnic, Pope creates an informal, friendly style whilst building the comparison of war to sport. This implies that war is a trivial, fun pastime like sports, which adds persuasive clout to the poem, particularly as sports are a traditionally male activity. The friendly style of the poem also helps to achieve Popes purpose because the reader is more likely to trust the content of the poetry if they feel a b ond with the author. Popes use of language also contributes to this style. Popes choice of adverbs, such as eagerly, hold positive connotations which subconsciously imply to the reader that the war will be fun. This is a contrast to Owens choice of language in Dulce et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth, where words hold negative connotations, thereby expressing the horrors of trench warfare. An example of this is Owens use of the word haunting with implications of death. Another technique used by Pope to achieve her purpose is the use of rhetorical questions, such as Wholl give his country a hand?, which force the reader to ask themselves these questions and doubt their opinions if they differ from those of the author. Additionally Popes simple ABAB rhyme scheme, contrasting to Owens ironic use of enjambment to twist this rhyme scheme in Dulce et Decorum Est, gives the poem a catchy style which mean the poem itself is more likely to remain in the readers mind and is therefore more likely to evade their conscious opinions and persuade them into Popes point of view. However, in Whos for the Game? Pope personifies England as a woman who needs help, referring to the country as she, which acts as a persuasive technique for men by stimulating their tribal instincts to protect females. Similarly, Owen uses the distress of women to instil emotion within the reader, in the line the pallor of girls brows in Anthem for Doomed Youth. Another of Owens poems, written with extensive assistance from Sassoon in the summer of 1917, is the Anthem for Doomed Youth. The purpose of this poem, as with all of Owens later work, was to express the horrors of trench warfare to the reader, thereby counteracting the effects of pro-war recruitment poetry and developing an attitude of opposition to war within the reader. In the Anthem for Doomed Youth, Owen compares the dehumanized casualties of the First World War to the formal funeral ceremonies of peacetime in the sad shires of Britain. Owen also employs animal imagery and rhetorical questions, What passing bells for those who die as cattle?, as persuasive techniques to imply that the deaths of soldiers are treated similarly to the slaughter of cattle. The rhetorical questions are used by Owen to make the reader question their preconceptions. Owen also uses juxtaposition within lines such as The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells. to reflect the contrast of traditional fu neral customs and the attitude towards death in times of war. This emphasises how life becomes devalued and people dehumanized during battle. This highlights the futility and illogic of war itself, thereby helping Owen to achieve his purpose. The sombre, sonnet style of Anthem for Doomed Youth also helps to achieve this purpose by reflecting the grave atmosphere of funerals. This reminds the reader of the high number of casualties caused by wars, helping to promote an anti-war attitude amongst Owens audience. Harold Begbies Fall In is another example of a recruitment poem which reflected popular social attitudes towards the First World War in the summer of 1914. It was published in The Daily Chronicle and quickly became incredibly popular, even being set to music and sung in music halls with both related posters and badges produced. The purpose of the poem itself was to encourage young men to join the war effort. Begbie uses repetition and rhetorical questions in lines such as What will you lack, sonny, what will you lack? to make the poem easy to remember and therefore persuasive. The rhetorical questions are used by Begbie to make the reader question any anti-war opinions they may possess. The use of rhetorical questions and the use of personal pronouns, such as you, also create a personal, friendly style for the poem. This friendly style, also employed by Jessie Pope in Whos for the Game?, is persuasive and helps to achieve Begbies purpose because the reader is more likely to trust the content of the poetry if they feel a bond with the author. In Fall In each verse has a different scenario, such as in far-off winter nights, to compare the results for those who fought in the war and those who did not. In each scenario the lads who come back are more successful so the plot of the poem helps achieve the poems purpose by implying that is Wrong not to fight in the war. Begbie also capitalizes right and wrong in the phrase And Right is smashed by Wrong? to personify them and displaying the choice in a simplified manner which removes any empathy for those who do not fight, produces pro-war emotions within the reader and achieving the purpose of recruitment poetry. This also contrasts with the timeline of Owens Dulce et Decorum Est, which describes only one scenario, not several, heightening the tension in each verse in order to build to a climax. Owen does this to sustain both the readers interest and their emotional involvement so his conclusion will be more effective and persuasive, expressing the harsh reality of trench warfare. Another similarity between the poetry of Owen and Begbie is their references to God, although both employ this technique for opposing reasons. In Fall In, Be gbie uses God to support his view that able men should go to war by showing it, and the war itself, to be morally correct by declaring that Britains call is Gods. In contrast, Owen uses implications of Gods role in the war to provide connotation with death in the line Shall shine the holy glimmers of their goodbyes, in his sonnet Anthem for Doomed Youth, to achieve his purpose of emphasising the brutality of the First World War. The recruitment poetry of Harold Begbie and Jessie Pope uses a friendly, informal style to achieve their purpose of encouraging men to volunteer for the army whilst Wilfred Owen uses a sombre style in his later works. Owen uses this style to achieve his purpose of counteracting the effects of recruitment poetry by expressing the horrors of trench warfare to the reader and developing an attitude of opposition to war within the reader. The different styles of the poetry reflects their contrasting purposes as the friendly style is used to display war in a positive light whereas the sombre style is used to express the harsh reality of trench warfare. However, both types of poetry, anti-war and pro-war, use rhetorical questions to force the reader to question any opposing opinions they may hold. In Fall In Begbie asks Is it naught to you if your country fall and Right is smashed by Wrong? and in Anthem for Doomed Youth Owen questions What passing bells for those who die as cattle? Both types of poetry also employ comparisons, albeit at opposite ends of the spectrum, where recruitment poets compare war to sport and anti-war poets compare traditional funerals with the miserable reality of trench warfare. To conclude, it is clear that Begbie, Pope and other recruitment poets employ persuasive techniques to achieve their purpose, as does Owen, although Owen had a contrasting purpose to the recruitment poets.