How does Julian Grenfell Convey His Attitu
Throughout the poem, Into Battle, the poet, Julian Grenfell uses several techniques to convey his pro-war attitude. In this essay I will look deeper into those techniques and analyse his language use to show how he has done this, through several P.E.E.L paragraphs.
In stanzas three and four Grenfell glorifies a soldier’s death using positive personification of nature. This is shown when he uses phrases such as; ‘All the bright company of Heaven, Hold them in their high comradeship’, ‘They stand to him each one a friend’ and ‘They gently speak in the windy weather, they guide him to valley and ridges end’. The words ‘Bright Company of heaven’ refers to the stars, and ‘Hold them in high comradeship’ insinuates that if a soldier were to die in battle they would become one of the stars in heaven. The use of the words ‘They stand to him each one a friend’ and ‘They gently speak in the windy weather, they guide him to valley and ridges end’ when referring to trees infers to the reader that the tree’s will guide him, and watch his back while he fights, and when he dies they will watch over him, all of this glorifying a soldiers death in battle.
Throughout the entire poem, Grenfell uses very negative words in a positive way, making the reader doubt their normal association with the word. Examples of such are ‘burning’ ‘takes him by the throat’ ‘thundering’ and ‘moans’. He describes the first moment of battle as both ‘burning’ and ‘joy’ which contrast each other to create a joyful sense with a dangerous undertones. Usually the phrase ‘takes him by the throat’ is associated with threatening behaviour yet in this sense it is also linked with the words ‘joy of battle’ and ‘desirable’ saying that all you will feel when the moment comes is the desire to fight grabbing you by the throat. Grenfell also uses the word ‘moans’ with the word ‘sings’ and links them with the word ‘death’ saying that ‘In the air death moans and sings’ which is a very different and clever contrast to
In stanzas three and four Grenfell glorifies a soldier’s death using positive personification of nature. This is shown when he uses phrases such as; ‘All the bright company of Heaven, Hold them in their high comradeship’, ‘They stand to him each one a friend’ and ‘They gently speak in the windy weather, they guide him to valley and ridges end’. The words ‘Bright Company of heaven’ refers to the stars, and ‘Hold them in high comradeship’ insinuates that if a soldier were to die in battle they would become one of the stars in heaven. The use of the words ‘They stand to him each one a friend’ and ‘They gently speak in the windy weather, they guide him to valley and ridges end’ when referring to trees infers to the reader that the tree’s will guide him, and watch his back while he fights, and when he dies they will watch over him, all of this glorifying a soldiers death in battle.
Throughout the entire poem, Grenfell uses very negative words in a positive way, making the reader doubt their normal association with the word. Examples of such are ‘burning’ ‘takes him by the throat’ ‘thundering’ and ‘moans’. He describes the first moment of battle as both ‘burning’ and ‘joy’ which contrast each other to create a joyful sense with a dangerous undertones. Usually the phrase ‘takes him by the throat’ is associated with threatening behaviour yet in this sense it is also linked with the words ‘joy of battle’ and ‘desirable’ saying that all you will feel when the moment comes is the desire to fight grabbing you by the throat. Grenfell also uses the word ‘moans’ with the word ‘sings’ and links them with the word ‘death’ saying that ‘In the air death moans and sings’ which is a very different and clever contrast to