For Friday: World War One British Poets
NOTE: No class on Wednesday--I have to be out of town, unfortunately. So we'll pick up on Friday. Don't forget to start memorizing your poems! (see post below with the recitation schedule)
- Sassoon: “Haunted” (34), “The Troops” (36), “Repression of War Experience” (37), “Picture Show” (38)
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: What does Sassoon mean by the metaphor, “life is just
the picture dancing on a screen”? Is he talking about life in general, or life
in the war? Do you think some of our previous poets, such as Owen or Gurney,
would agree with him?
Q2: Graves’ poem, “To Lucasta On Going To the War—For the
Fourth Time” is a slight parody of a 17th century poem by Richard Lovelace
called “To Lucasta, Going To the Wars,” which is also about a soldier leaving
his love to fight. The concluding lines of the poem read, “Yet this inconstancy
is such/As thou too shalt adore:/I could not love thee, dear, so much,/Loved I
not honor more.” How is Graves parodying or mocking this
sentiment in his poem? How has war changed over the centuries, based on Graves ’
soldier?
Q3: Compare Graves ’ “When I’m Killed”
to Brooke’s “V.The Soldier” from The Soldier (p. 3). How does this underline
Graves ’ essential philosophy of the war and of being a
soldier? Do you think he’s mocking Brooke’s beliefs? Or are they merely
slightly different ways of looking at the same experience or sacrifice?
Q4: How does Sassoon
conjure up what Owen called “memory [fingering] in their hair of murders” (22)
in his poem, “Repression of War Experience?” According to this poem, why in
some ways is it easier to fight and die in a war than to survive it?
1. I think he's talking about disassociation to life in general, but particularly after harsh experiences, like war. The previous poets were very much in the moment, but Sassoon talks of the after effect. How nothing seems real anymore but life never stops. There is no glory in death and very little in living after fighting a war. Too little, too late. Mistakes constantly on repeat. Sassoon speaks of leaving the weapon on the battle field but taking PTSD with you when you leave.
ReplyDelete2. Graves believes it is pride keeping people in a war and nothing else, especially for soldiers. He seems to suggest that Lovelace's poem isn't about an honorable man so much as it is about a prideful man. Wars of past centuries focused on finding honor in bloodshed and now soldiers can't even have that. Esh, that's a bit depressing, but on a lighter note, i do think Graves might be poking fun at Lovelace with a bit of "honor my ass, you prideful buffoon".
Q1.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read Sasson’s poem, I thought about how ironic it is that we make movies—they dramatize events and soldier’s lives, make heroes out of names on a list, turn anecdotes in a textbook into something we can feel. But most of them are fictionalized, the banal horrors cut out. And I don’t think the poets would approve of their stories being used as entertainment—it’s just another form of propaganda. With the line “from the gloom I watch an endless picture-show”, I thought it doesn’t matter whether or not audiences sympathize with the soldiers they see on the big screen—they’re still going to walk out of the theater and forget it moments later.
Q3.
I don’t mind Brook’s poems, although they’re hard to take seriously after reading all of the anti-war pieces in the rest of our book. Brook’s poem “The Soldier” offers solace for those left behind. In a way, so does “When I Die”. Graves writes, “You’ll find me buried, living-dead/In these verses that you’ve read”. His readers will have to work harder than Brook’s to sooth their grief.”
Marlee:
ReplyDeleteQ1. I think he's talking about life in general. Being toned into something as the image passed. Just as very day of war was the same ol thing as there was never an ending. It was the same picture again and again. And I don't think the other poets would've liked his sense of it. He didn't show the brutalness as he played it off as just "a picture show".
Q2: In lovelaces poem it told how his pride got in the way or what was driving every time he set out to war. He didn't go with the mind set that he wanted freeedom and to protect his nation he went for himself.
Q3: Graves doesn't see any glory in the war or dying in it, he doesn't see a reason for it. The only honor Graves will get out of this war is if people read his poems, or at least in his eyes. Graves states that he won't be in heaven or hell when he dies, whether it's because he lost faith in God due to the war or he just doesn't want to go to either is up to interpretation. There doesn't seem to any kind of reference to Brooke or his poems so i'm going to assume that he isn't doing that. Brookes really puts emphasis on the glory of dying for your country and how your sacrifice will be immortalized, Graves on the other hand sees it more like an inevitable fate and not heroic or glorious at all. Just another dead body.
ReplyDeleteQ4: The man narrating the poem hears sounds and images in the shadows, flashes of memory that keep coming back to haunt him. Many veterans experience a sense of guilt, like why did I live but so many others did not? The reoccurring memories can make ones life very miserable, constantly coming up when you least expect them to.
Sorry for the late submission, didn't click the button when I thought I did.
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