During the First World War thousandsof young men volunteered for military service.
For the soldiers, fighting for theirown countries was the highest and noblest experience that they could ever had. But,after this first phase of pride and patriotic enthusiasm, some of these menstarted to realize how bad, dangerous and rough was the war.
The english soldiers passed someyears fighting and surviving the trenches. Life in trenches, and, in general,during the First World War was horrible: fighting in the rain and in the mud, amongthe decaying bodies of the dead soldiers, under a bombing sky, and always readyto die for some irrational patriotic values. The War Poets were a group ofcommon soldiers, ordinary people or well-educated men, that fought during thewar (and many died too in those years) and wrote about their experiences, in arealistic and unconventional way: they started a new line of modern poetry.
Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) and WilfredOwen (1893-1918) were one of them, but they had different ideas.
War Poetryhibs English Dub
#8 The Man He Killed. Poet: Thomas Hardy Published: 1902 Thomas Hardy was an influential English poet and novelist in the Victorian era. He wrote this poem at the time of the Second Boer War between the British Empire and the two Boer states, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, over the control of South Africa. 8th May 2017 English Literature Reference this In this essay I would be explaining how six war poems explore the theme of war. Drummer Hodge was written by Thomas hardy in 1899. He wrote it after he read the death of a local drummer boy in the Boer war.Hodge was a nickname given to country people at that time. Books shelved as war-poetry: Poems of the Great War 1914-1918 by Richard Aldington, Here, Bullet by Brian Turner, The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, Selected.
He was born in a rich family and hegrew up in a rich context. He is remembered for his handsome appearance andbecause he died very young. He wrote a collection of poems called “1914” .
Brooke thought that war was clean,and death was a reward, an ideal to pursue. The publication of these warsonnets made him popular because of his image of the “young romantic hero”. Inthe petrarchan sonnet “The Soldier”(dividedinto an octave and a sestet) we can see his lyric style and his love for hiscountry ,England England
He’s thankful to England , described as a mother (“a dust whom England England
A treasury of war poetry, British and American poems of the world war, 1914-1919 (1917) by various; edited by George Herbert Clarke Fifes and Drums (1917) by The Vigilantes Patriotic pieces from the Great War (1918) by various; edited by Edna D.
In the poem there is no extremesorrow, or sadness, or desperation ,it’s just a sentimental declaration of loveand faith, a declaration to his country. He wants to be remembered as anenglish men, a proud, happy, english man, and not as a soldier. That’s why hedoesn’t mention anything about war or violence. This was the typical attitudeof the first phase of the war, when patriotism was the most important value anddeath in war was still considered just as a noble way to end your ordinarylife.
Sedovessi morire,pensa solo questo di me:
chesarà per sempre Inghilterra. In quella ricca terra,
War Poetryhibs English Subtitles
Unapolvere che l’Inghilterra partorì, formò, informò,
diede,una volta ,i suoi fiori da amare, i suoi sentieri da percorrere,
uncorpo che appartiene all’Inghilterra, che respira aria inglese,
lavatodai fiumi, benedetto dai soli della sua terra.
Epensa ,questo cuore, liberatosi da tutto il male,
riconduceda qualche parte i pensieri che l’Inghilterra gli diede;
lesue immagini e i suoi suoni, e sogna felice come il suo giorno;
neicuori in pace, sotto un cielo inglese.
WilfredOwen
Wilfred Owen was an English teacher, hefought in the war from 1915 until his death, in 1918. He represents the darkside of the war poems, because, differently from Brooke, he shows the pain, theviolence and the pity of war.
He doesn’t want to speak aboutheroes, death and glory. He just wants to tell the truth. In the poem called “Dulce et decorum est” he speaks abouthis own experience in the trenches, describing a particular episode when he faced death in agas attack.
“Dulce et decorum est pro patriamori” (“it is sweet and honourable dying for your country”) it’s a quotationtaken from the Latin poet Horace. It’s the “old lie” ,told by ordinary people to justify the horrors of war. Onlythe men that were there can understand how awful and painful this experienceis. War is scaring, and brutal, it’s “obscene as cancer”. The vision of hisfriend chocked by the gas that asks help is still a nightmare in his dreams.
Owen is very realistic in describingthe horrors of war and the desperation that is left behind, inside the peoplethat have experienced it.
Piegatiin due, come i mendicanti anziani sotto i sacchi,
conle ginocchia che si toccano, tossendo come le streghe, maledicemmo attraversoil fango,
finchènon ci lasciammo alle spalle quei bagliori spaventosi
everso il nostro distante accampamento iniziammo a trascinarci.
Gliuomini marciavano addormentati. Molti avevano perso i loro stivali
Avanzavanozoppicando, calzati di sangue. Tutti camminavano zoppi; tutti ciechi;
Dellestanche, lontane granate cinque-nove che cadevano indietro.
Gas!GAS! Rapidi, ragazzi! – Un brancolare frenetico,
Maqualcuno ancora gridava e inciampava
Esi dimenava come un uomo nel fuoco o nella calce viva…
Offuscati,attraverso i vetri appannati delle maschere anti-gas e la luce verde spessa,
Intutti i miei sogni, davanti al mio sguardo impotente,
Siprecipita verso di me, barcollando, soffocando, annegando.
Sein qualche orribile sogno anche tu potessi metterti al passo
dietro il furgone in cui lo scaraventammo,
e guardare i bianchi occhi contorcersi sul suovolto,
il suo volto a penzoloni, come un demonio saziodi peccato;
se solo potessi sentire il sangue, ad ognisobbalzo,
fuoriuscire gorgogliante dai polmoni guasti dibava,
osceni come il cancro, amari come il rigurgito
di disgustose, incurabili piaghe su lingueinnocenti -
amico mio, non ripeteresti con tanto compiaciutofervore
a fanciulli ansiosi di farsi raccontare gestadisperate,
la vecchia Menzogna: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
dietro il furgone in cui lo scaraventammo,
e guardare i bianchi occhi contorcersi sul suovolto,
il suo volto a penzoloni, come un demonio saziodi peccato;
se solo potessi sentire il sangue, ad ognisobbalzo,
fuoriuscire gorgogliante dai polmoni guasti dibava,
osceni come il cancro, amari come il rigurgito
di disgustose, incurabili piaghe su lingueinnocenti -
amico mio, non ripeteresti con tanto compiaciutofervore
a fanciulli ansiosi di farsi raccontare gestadisperate,
la vecchia Menzogna: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.