Hello readers! This blog is assigned to us by Vaidehi Haryani ma’am. It deals with the topic of war poetry. M.A. Sem 2 syllabus deals with 20th century literature and it is incomplete without understanding wars. It's always a question of how soldiers used to share their emotions or their experience. We realize that literature is the best means to spread ideas/ emotions etc. Many civilians and soldiers have written various poems which depict the war periods and in this blog we will discuss a few questions related to it.
WAR POETRY
What is your understanding of war poetry?
The term war poetry chiefly denotes writing under the direct impact of world war I. The genre which is directly influenced by war. This type of poetries was also written in the ancient Greek period but it was established as genre during world war I. Majorly the war poetries are Anti- war, that oppose war. The term was coined by Randall Jarrell in his essay “The Literature of War” (1961). Jarrell defines war poetry as “a poem that has as its theme war and that is written during or about a war”.
War poets are also known as trench poets. These are the poets who themselves used to participate in the wars and used to write their experiences in the form of poems. But it's not only that soldiers used to write, civilians too used to write war poetry.
The purpose of the war poetry was; firstly the soldiers needed a medium to express their feelings, emotions and poetry was the good medium for it. Another idea behind writing war poetry was to show the dark side and horrors of war and lastly, poetry was the best means to spend free time in the wars.
World war I continued for around 4 years and approximately 9 million people died. This brought the state of mental stress and degrading feeling in the people. Heroic ideals of war seemed meaningless. First the war poems were written to celebrate the sense of honor and glory of war but after world war I poets also realized that there is no honor and glory in the war. It is just settled by the ministries in order to gain power.
Characteristics of war poetry:
It used gruesome and shocking imagery.
It signaled a break off from the contemporary poetic tradition.
It uses the actual language of men engaged in war.
Realistic documentation of war with all its beauty.
War poetry is not only anti-war but it also deals with immediate answers to humanity, innocence, courage, loyalty, guilt, identity, duty, desire , health. War poetry has become an expression of historical and political conscience. It also deals with what we are and what we want to be.
Themes of War Poems
· The loss of innocence
· Brotherhood and friendship
· The horrors of war
· Disillusionment with religion
· Nature
· Irrationality of war
· Emotions and feelings
Note down the difference of all the War Poets.
The important war poets and their poem we are going to study are:
Dulce et Decorum Est - Wilfred Owen
The Soldier - Rupert Brooke
The Fear – Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
The Hero - Siegfried Sassoon
The Target - Ivor Gurney
As we discussed before, War poetry is not necessarily 'anti-war'. It is about the very large questions of life: identity, innocence, guilt, loyalty, courage, compassion, humanity, duty, desire, death. Every poet has a different vision to look towards war and they share varied emotions in their poem. Let us see the difference in the feelings of the poets in the same genre of poetry.
Compare any two poems with reference to the subject, style of writing and patriotism.
The Hero by Siegfried Sassoon
Subject:
Siegfried Sassoon’s “The Hero” dramatizes society’s attempt to maintain an ideal about war and honor inapplicable to modern warfare. In the poem, an officer delivers news to a soldier’s mother about her son’s death using romantic old-war rhetoric. Sassoon’s poem embodies the irony of World War I on a small and large scale.
The message in the poem is It expresses anger to those who start wars and send their fellow men to their death. The main message is that army officers plan battles from the safety of their base, and are usually not involved in the fighting, and therefore do not know the horrors that they are forcing soldiers to face.
Style:
The poem is written in iambic pentameter. It comprises three stanzas of six lines length largely made up of rhyming couplets, the first four lines of the second stanza have an alternating rhyme scheme.
Patriotism:
The poet wants the world to acknowledge his bravery and valor. He has a faithful and sincere love for his mother, proved by his willingness to save her at the cost of his own life; it is this, says the poem, that transforms him into a real hero.
The Soldier by Rupert Brooke
Subject:
“The Soldier” explores the bond between a patriotic British soldier and his homeland. The key themes of this poem are love and death which are the two most powerful things that recall the feelings of readers. Death, as he is a soldier going into World War One, and love in the sense of loving his country. It reflects British sorrow over and pride in the young men who died in World War I. The tone is uplifting and idealistic but also self-sacrificial. There is a sense of romantic inevitability about the privilege and duty of dying for one's country
Style:
This poem is written in fourteen lines in a Petrarchan/Italian sonnet form. The poem is divided into an opening octet, and then followed by a concluding sestet (the last six lines of a sonnet). Rhyme scheme of the poem; the octet is rhymed after the Shakespearean/Elizabethan (ABAB CDCD) form, while the sestet follows the Petrarchan/Italian (EFG EFG) form.
Patriotism:
The Soldier is a sonnet in which Brooke glorifies England during the First World War. It is a deeply patriotic and idealistic poem that expresses a soldier's love for his homeland—in this case England, which is portrayed as a kind of nurturing paradise.
Do you find any such regional poems/movies/web series/songs which can be compared to any one of the poems given here. Also, give a proper explanation of the similarity.
“लब पे आती है दुआ बनके तमन्ना मेरी
ज़िन्दगी शम्मा की सूरत हो खुदाया मेरी
लब पे आती है दुआ बनके तमन्ना मेरी ”
ऐ वतन, मेरे वतन
ऐ वतन आबाद रहे तू
आबाद रहे तू
आबाद रहे तू
ऐ वतन, वतन मेरे, आबाद रहे तू
ऐ वतन, वतन मेरे, आबाद रहे तू
ऐ वतन, वतन मेरे, आबाद रहे तू
मैं जहा रहू जहाँ में याद रहे तू
मैं जहा रहू जहाँ में याद रहे तू
ऐ वतन मेरे वतन
ऐ वतन मेरे वतन
तू ही मेरी मंजिल है, पहचान तुझी से
तू ही मेरी मंजिल है, पहचान तुझी से
पहुंचू मैं जहां भी
मेरी बुनियाद रहे तू
पहुंचू मैं जहां भी
मेरी बुनियाद रहे तू
ऐ वतन, वतन मेरे, आबाद रहे तू
मैं जहा रहू जहाँ में याद रहे तू
ऐ वतन मेरे वतन
ऐ वतन मेरे वतन
तुझपे कोई गम की आंच आने नहीं दूं
तुझपे कोई गम की आंच आने नहीं दूं
कुर्बान मेरी जान तुझपे शाद रहे तू
कुर्बान मेरी जान तुझपे शाद रहे तू
ऐ वतन, वतन मेरे, आबाद रहे तू
मैं जहा रहू जहाँ में याद रहे तू
ऐ वतन ऐ वतन
मेरे वतन मेरे वतन
आबाद रहे तू, आबाद रहे तू
ऐ वतन मेरे वतन
आबाद रहे तू.
These are the lines from the song from the Raazi movie ‘Ae Watan’. This song talks about the one who is sacrificing her life for the nation/ homeland. This song can be compared with the war poem The Soldier by Rupert Brooke which also talks about the bond between the soldier and his homeland. The poem also deals with love and death, Death, as he is a soldier going into World War One, and love in the sense of loving his country.
I hope this blog is useful to you. Thank you for visiting.
[words- 1500]
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