Rupert Brooke was among the first to enlist in 1914. However, he died of blood poisoning before seeing combat. Wilfred Owen also enlisted early in the war. He fought in France and was killed in action in 1918. Each poet had an extremely different view of the war due to these different experiences, and this was reflected in their poetry.
Brooke’s “The Soldier” is filled with patriotic pride. The speaker, a solider describes his probable death as a victory for England. “If I should die, think only this of me:/ That there’s some corner of a foreign field/ That is forever England,” (lines 1-3). His is a worthy and noble sacrifice. Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, however, has a very different view of death in battle. “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” reads the first line. There is nothing noble about dying like an animal. It is a demeaning and insignificant death without even the honor of a decent burial. There is no, “voice of mourning save the choirs -/ The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells; and bugles calling for them from sad shires,” (lines 6-8).
The second stanza of, “The Soldier” expresses an optimistic hope in life after death. “And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the Eternal mind, no less/ Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given,” (lines 9-11). Death becomes a glorious means of bringing the glory of England to heaven, to create, “an English heaven,” (line 14). The title of Owen’s play, on the other hand, says it all. The youth are doomed. There is no mention of an afterlife, no glory. There is no great purpose for them.
Heather,
ReplyDeleteGood poems to discuss, and some well-chosen quotations in your post. You don't really follow up the quotations with sufficient analysis or commentary, though, and in trying to discuss both poems you don't really devote enough attention or space to either of them.