War is a part of our world and has been since the beginning of time. Through war, men have been given the opportunity to fight for freedom, for their country and for their beliefs. Young men have marched into an abyss, some never to return again. They have faced death on a daily basis and the way in which some of these soldiers have responded is through verse. The four poems entitled “Dulce et Decorum Est” and “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen, “Conscript” by FA Horn and “The Photograph” by Peter Kocan have aroused different emotions in their reader including…
“Even as a kid she’d lived in a puzzle world, where surfaces were like masks, where the most ordinary objects seemed fiercely alive with their own sorrows and desires”…
One of the most credited poets throughout the Civil War period was Walt Whitman, who wrote about the hardships of war in his work. In particular, two of his poems are not only heavily intertwined based on topic, but in structure and used literary techniques. “Beat! Beat! Drums!” and “O Captain! O Captain!” both share many similar qualities among figurative, sound and structural devices that Whitman uses to help further enhance the theme of how negatively war can impact individuals.…
The young girl in this poem is faced with a hard decision of whether facing her uncle's anger or going against her own morals. The first stanza starts off with the young girl gripping a branch in stress, as she was left by her uncle to forcibly kill a fox. Beveridge uses metaphors to express the girls churning with fear such as “terror barrel-rode through my stomach” in line…
The power of poetry, to illustrate and develop images in the minds of the readers is greatly demonstrated by Karl Shapiro's poem, "The Conscientious Objector." Through his literary skill, Shapiro is able to develop the realistic mindset and perspective of a conscientious objector.…
I know of one other poet who also condemns war and who can effectively communicate the horror of war and the senselessness of it, simply by challenging our senses. Kenneth Slessor, like…
Some historians argue that conscientious objectors were nothing but cowards. How valid is this interpretation of conscientious objectors during World War I?…
He states, "Throughout the first five stanzas of the poem, the speaker spends the lines generally talking about death and how one should stand up in the face of…
For Cause and Comrades by James M. McPherson consists of mostly of soldiers’ diaries and letters home as to why the men were fighting the Civil War. The initial motivation the union and confederacy sustain throughout the story proves that personal honor is valued more than their lives.…
Kairos: The poem’s setting begins as the narrator is sitting in his wheelchair in the dark. It says that he was wearing a “Legless, sewn short at elbow” (line 2) which allows the reader to see that he has lost his legs. Then the setting moves in to the past as his memories become of topic. In his memories he remembers how it was to dance with girls and have a good time. Then at the end of the second stanza we move back into the present as the narrator reminds us that now the girls want nothing to do with him and look at him like a “queer disease”. Then, at the beginning of the third stanza we flash back into his memories as the narrator explains how handsome, energetic, and full of life he was before going into the war. He then flashes back on his days of playing football and when he was hurt he was celebrated as a hero. Then towards the end of the third stanza, he explains…
“War is the best thing in the world,” said no sane or knowledgeable person, ever. Whatever reasons there are to go to war, such as benefiting or protecting the way of life, the outcome is inevitably devastating. War affects not only the people intimately involved who are in combat, but also civilians who live near the conflict as well as family of the soldiers who may be thousands of miles away. The people who are able to view war as a positive deed have never experienced a second of combat. The poems “The Man He Killed”, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, “Dover Beach”, and “Patterns” each tell a story of helplessness, bitterness, and suffering towards war with few exceptions.…
The poem really tends to take an emotional turn when the speaker begins to talk about dying of starvation. “and if one was to die of hunger”. (15-16). the speaker seems to say that is it merely the individuals fought if they die of starvation. “what an odd way to leave for heaven” (17-18).…
In the fourth stanza he tells us that some people don’t learn about life soon enough when he says “And learn, too late, they grieved on its way, /Go not go gentle into that good night.” When he says “grieved” or “go gentle” it gives a rebellious outlook about death. Towards the end of the poem the author gives an example that even his father will have to battle death. In the last two lines of the stanza the author uses a couplet when he says, “Do not go gentle into that good night, /Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” The last words say that people should fight death and carry on living.…
A Word from the Fat Lady Gabrielle Calvocoressi It isn't how we look up close so much as in dreams. Our giant is not so tall, our lizard boy merely flaunts crusty skin- not his fault they keep him in a crate and bathe him maybe once a week. When folks scream or clutch their hair and poke at us and glare and speak of how we slithered up from Hell, it is themselves they see: the preacher with the farmer's girls (his bulging eyes, their chicken legs) or the mother lurching towards the sink, a baby quivering in her gnarled hands. Horror is the company you keep when shades are drawn. Evil does not reside in cages.…
The poet states that though they are outnumbered they must be brave and stand firm to their persecutions that will in turn kill their foes in spirit. He reminds them that they really have no other choice and their punishment could be no worse than they are already receiving. "What though before us lies the open grave?"…