For Wednesday: World War One British Poets
- Brooke, “The Soldier” (1-3), “The Treasure” (4)
- Sorley, “To Germany” (5-6), “When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead” (6), “Route March” (6-7)
- Thomas, “This Is No Case of Petty Right or Wrong” (8-9), “Adlestrop” (9), “Tears” (9-10), “The Owl” (10), “A Private” (10-11), “As the Team’s Head Brass” (11)
REMEMBER: don’t worry if you don’t understand the entire poem, and don’t look for the overall ‘message.’ Look instead at the metaphors or just consider the sounds of the poem itself. Ask yourself, ‘what does this poem want me to see or experience as I read it? Why look at a plot of ground as “England”? How does this change how I see the world?”
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: Why does Brooke see the experience of war—not just dying, but the entire enterprise—as a spiritual endeavor? What meaning does it give to his life that he lacked before? What does he mean by lines such as, “Safe though all safety’s lost; safe where men fall;/And if these poor limbs die, safest of all”? (2).
Q2: In the letter quoted on page 5, Sorley criticizes Brooke’s attitude toward war by saying, “He has clothed his attitude with fine words: but he has taken the sentimental attitude.” How does one of his poems take the unsentimental attitude, then? How does he look at the realities of war without clothing them with fine words or romantic language? For him, what is the reality of war for the common soldier?
Q3: In Thomas’ poem, “This Is No Petty Case of Right or Wrong,” what does the narrator mean when he says, “Little I know or care if, being dull,/I shall miss something that historians/Can rake out of the ashes when perchance/The phoenix broods serene above their ken” (9)? Also, if this is how he feels about the war, what makes him ultimately enlist as a soldier? What does he care about?
Q4: How is Sorley’s “Route March” a parody of most propagandistic poems, such as Kipling’s “For All We Have and Are” (63), and even Brooke’s “The Soldier”? What makes the poem satirical, and where do we hear echoes of these earlier poems?
Q1. He might have been raised in a culture where diving in battle is the only way to truly die and go to their own version of heaven. He isn't afraid to die or at least that is what he says in his poem. To him fighting and dying in a war will make him a real man and a whole man. To him he is safest when he is close to death because he is not afraid of death.
ReplyDeleteQ2. Sorely really didn't want to be in the war and it shows in his poetry, 'When You See Millions of The Mouthless Dead" when he says that the dead do not speak, like what Brooke says when they pass the torch to another soldier for them to fight their fight. Sorely puts a more earthly approach to the war and makes sure who even reads Brooke sees the "real" war.
Great responses! Yes, he is skeptical that you can assign words or morals to corpses. I think he finds that 'sentimental' and too pat--rather than the grimy truth of war itself.
DeleteQ3. If someone goes to war, fights and dies, genuinely believing they were doing the right thing--protecting their family and preserving their country--we can’t dismiss their experience. But neither can we ignore the darker, sordid truths of it. I feel like Thomas’ poems perfectly capture that “Yeah, *but*…” His piece, “This is No Case of Petty Right or Wrong” doesn’t shame the earnest soldier. And he’s not unpatriotic, just because his patriotism isn’t blind—you can love your country and hate the actions of its government. I believe we see this in the lines, “I am one in crying, God save England, lest/ We lose what never slaves and cattle blessed.”
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, I feel like he’s against the people who will write a moral to the story of this war. He criticizes future “experts” for summing up his experience, when he and his friends were the ones who lived and died in it.
Q4. In this poem Sorley is parodying the idea of young men skipping off to honor and death without any doubts about what they were doing, what they are being *made* to do.. I loved “Route March” far more the third time I read it than the first two. It took a couple minutes for the best lines to sink in, but then I couldn’t stop hearing them: “Earth that bore with joyful ease/ Hemlock for Socrates,/Earth that blossomed and was glad/’Neath the cross that Christ had,/Shall rejoice and blossom too/When the bullet reaches you.” We recognize these references—Socrates and Jesus—as instances of tragedy, humans making the choice to be cruel. We mourn their losses—why would we grieve the loss of the soldier less? Why would we cheer it? Why would we expect *them* to be glad for it? Why do the propaganda poems assume that smiling death is all these men had to contribute to the world?
Great responses...and yes, he doesn't want (or trust) historians to editorialize this experience. He seems to be saying, "it is what it is." And we did what we did.
DeleteMarlee Lyle
ReplyDeleteQ1. This gives a sense that going to batltle was a way of giving himself for his country. This benefitting others seemed to be the right thing to do as other were doing it as it was a choice already made for him. As it states in the poem he doesn't fear death therefore battling in war was probably less of a challenge to him as he was fearless. This quote I believe means he feels safety even when death is near.
Q2. Brooke clothes war with a sense to make others less fearful he clothes it with a more innocent outlook. While Sorely was very blunt and straight forward with the ways of war. It could be that Brooke really didn't see it very traumatic as he wasn't scared of death.
Good responses!
Delete1. His life gains the meaning of the romantic notion that dying for a cause is honorable. That it somehow makes your life more meaningful than before, and what better cause than to die for your country. There's a sort of reassurance in the sure knowledge that you may very well die. There is no disruption of peace on the battlefield and when you do die, it's over. No more suffering. That's the end. In that way, being dead really is safe, because you no longer have to worry or fret over whether you live or die.
ReplyDelete3. He doesn't really care what people will say when it's all said and done about the justification for the war. He's in it and that's the end of it. He cares for his country, but doesn't hate 'the enemy' any more than he loves every one of his fellow Englishmen. There's a sort of self awareness that he shows, exhibiting the uncertainty if fighting the war really is the right thing, but acknowledging that it isn't about morality, but about serving his country. Nothing else really matters to him beyond that.
Great responses--I like the idea about morality being beside the point; you simply have to do it if you consider yourself English, etc. It's a duty more than a belief.
DeleteQ1: He's not afraid to come face to face with death. Most people who face death or see death are scared or terrified, and run from it. Every day men and women give up their lives for their country because they believe in what they're fighting for. To some it means the highest honor to be killed in battle.
ReplyDeleteQ2: Brooke and Sorely have very distinct ways they write. Brooke is more out to sugar-coat or have a innocent way he writes. Where as Sorely is the type that shoots first ask questions later. The view may switch for whoever reads their poems. Its all about how you read and your perspective of what you read, that determines how you view the writer/author works.
Bailey Copeland