Essay War Poetry

Submitted By yellowman99
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Both poems are about the First World War but Peace written by Rupert Brooke has a highly nationalistic view and displays a positive feeling about war. Whereas Anthem for doomed youth written by Wilfred Owen concentrate more on the fact that people were killed for no particular reason; and they also look at the true horrors of war. I will mainly be looking both poems and comparing them to each other. Both of these poems are sonnets but anthem for doomed youth is an ironic sonnet as a sonnet is a love poem but this poem is concentrating on the terror of war.

Both of these poems have element of religion in them; Peace appeals to be a prayer since he is being thankful to God for giving one the strength to reach peace. It is a prayer of thanks to God for the opportunity of having their sins forgiven through death for a good cause and so therefore to be able to enter heaven. The image of "swimmers into cleanness leaping" gives the idea of man washing away his past in life and starting a new like a religious baptism. Modern ways changed man into something ironically not "manly “states Brooke. He describes those who are not cleansed by war are "half-men," they do not yet know their moral purpose in life. Men in religion are supposed to protect the family and fight but because that there is war and no one is fighting, it took away the job a man was supposed to do but when war came it made a man have a chance of doing their job of protecting their country and family and those who did not go to war were not men but children; this is what Brooke is stating. War reborn a man and because he is dying for a good cause he will be able to enter heaven. Oxymoron describes death as "The worst friend and enemy" since it deprives us of life but also brings eternal peace. A friend is someone that cares for you and an enemy is someone that is against you so it is stating death is a friend that is an enemy because it frees you and makes you noble and brings you to heaven but it also takes your life away from earth. On the other hand Anthem for doomed youth has religious aspects, “drawing-down of blinds,” the last line of the poem, represents the inevitability of death, and the recognition that this incident will be recreated over and over. It compares a soldier to a play as the drawing of the blinds is when the soldier dies as the when the blind draws it is the end of the play and when a soldier dies it is the end of their life. There have also been more religious ideas brought up in the poem in Anthem the word "holy" suggests that there is some relationship to religion. There such as: "Prayers" and "choirs". This has been used to emphasise the fact that there has been no real funeral for the dead soldiers and despite that, they should still be remembered. Because so many people are dying they cannot have the proper religious funeral and they are all being dumped in a big grave.

Another comparison is that both poems have are the recall the youths of England. In Peace Symbolic language describes the youths as chosen by god who has "matched us with his hour", in other words, has made them suitable to take part in the war he is comparing war to a religious battle like a crusade. God has given them bodily strength; God has given them the power and opportunity for the youths and men of England to become noble and proud; this can be linked to religion also because when men go to war they are purified from their sin. This sonnet celebrates what Brooke feels is his generation’s great fortune to be born to fight in the First World War. He argues that it is a joy to be young and fit and able to fight for
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