WAR POETS, Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen + Analysis of 2 Poems, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica WAR POETS, Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen + Analysis of 2 Poems e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! WAR POETS Trenches The typical pattern is a zigzag, they were built as an antidote for the new technologies. This pattern helps to contain explosions. When the war broke out, Europe was unprepared, they did non expect that. This war was a turning point, an epoch making event because of the massive use of modern technologies. 1. The destructive power was immense. They tried to research more destructive powers. The soldier experienced all of that in first person. 2. It’s called the Great War because it involved an enormous number of people and states. 3. No previous conflict lasted so long continuously It was a traumatic experience, after nobody was able to go back to normality. Soldiers were obsessed with the nightmare of war. They felt they had been deceived (ingannati) because they left full of dreams, but when they saw the horror they realized that they had been told a lie. They had an enormous anger against the system. Most of the soldiers were young people, they were all volunteers because they thought that they were fighting for the right cause and thought it was their big chance. They wanted to escape a kind of social pressure because if you didn't go fighting at the front people would judge you. There are no ideals but just death and economic interests. War Poets What they wrote was just true, and they wrote about each one of us, to confront the human being. From the beginning to the end we have a break: from the big ideals of the propaganda (heroes fighting for democracy), in the middle there was trauma, horror and death. The war comes to change poetry itself. War poets were a group of soldiers that also became poets because of the trauma and the new sensibility they had. Their role is to bear witness, they were giving a pragmatic response to war. They felt that it was not just another war but something that would change the world. They were anti-heroic, they painted vivid and sometimes terrifying pictures of the horror of war and the pity (compassion) of war. The worst feeling is realizing that all of that was useless. The meaningless was the most hurtful thing. Owen states that the reader should not expect to read about heroes but about pity and brotherhood. Elegy: typically a lament for the dead. Some scholars criticized this poetry saying it was too personal. But their personal experience is projected to a universal meaning. Propaganda There were adolescents lying about their age in order to go fighting. Propaganda made young people feel pressured. There was a massive involvement, also the irish participated 1 The Soldier, by Rupert Brooke If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign eld That is for ever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her owers to love, her ways to roam; A body of England’s, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. It’s highly patriotic and war is something good - It’s a petrarchan sonnet. Normally sonnets are about love but in this case it is love for your country. - The soldier is a model for everyone to follow, the original title was the recruit. He changed the title from Recruit to Soldier because the recruit is a soldier who has not much experience and poor awareness, but the soldier has experience and has developed awareness. It was the last one of a collection of poems that all had a positive title (pace, safety…). He never experienced trenches, had only a glimpse of war. o There are just 3 negative words: die, dust, evil. In general the message is positive. o The volta is fundamental because you introduce a change. o The rhythm seems like a lullaby, the ideas are all positive. o The poetic voice is addressing the reader with imperatives (think). He repeats the imperative and connects it with "and". Even the corps of English soldiers can make other lands richers. o "Washed by the river" idea of being baptized, being given a mission to defend your country. If the soldier died he would become eternal, absorbed in something universal. You won't be just a soldier but youll be part of something bigger Idea of a fair exchange, England gives you something and you should give her something. The idea is that war happens because of God's will. Main themes: - Death is a noble sacrifice - Patriotism and jingoism 2