The first World War Essay Example for Free

The first World War Essay How do Owen and Sassoon shows us that it is not sweet and honourable to die for your country? In the early 1900s it was believed by many people in Britian that it was sweet and honou rable to die for your country this is mainly due to the fact that there had not been a major European conflict in a hundred years. War was believed to be glamorous and soldiers were seen as gallant and were highly respected for fighting for the Great British Empire. But during the First World War many soldiers discovered how tragic and horrific war could really be. Civillians like Jessie Pope created crude war verses to pressure men into enlisting without having any direct experience with the truth of war. Who would much rather come back with the crutch Than lie low and be out of the fun? Some of the soldiers from the First World War wrote poetry to describe the realities of war. Two of the famous poets from the period were Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. Siegfried Sassoon was born into a wealthy Jewish family in 1886 in which he lived the pastoral life of a young squire. When Sassoon joined the army it was said that he reacted very bitterly and violently to the realities of war. Sassoon earned the name of Mad Jack after a fellow officer died. This was due to the near-suicidal exploits against the german lines. Sassoon was admitted into a military hospital for shell shock where he met Wifred Owen. Wilfred Owen was born in 1893,at the age of sixteen Owen failed to attain entrance to the university of London and started writing poetry. Then he spent a year as a lay assistant to the Revd. In 1915 he joined the army and was placed in the Artists Rifles. In 1917 he was posted in France and saw his first action. Later on in the year he was diagnosed with Shell shock or neurasthenia and was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital. Owen and Sasson met in the hospital and discussed their veiws on the War and poetry. Both Owen and Sassoon objected to the social pressure both official and unofficial that were put on young men to join the army. Although it was said that Sassoon mentored and influenced Owen in writing poetry,Owens style is very different to Sassoons. Owen shows us the realties of war by writing detailed long poems about the situations the soldiers were put through during the First World War. Sassoon on the other hand wrote short poems about the after affects on the soldiers and the relatives after the war. This is shown in such poems that Owen wrote as Exposure in which Owen describes the psychological and physical affects soldiers were put through during winter warfare. The soldiers in this poem are waiting for something to happen this is called stale mate. At this point in time the soldiers feel that the cold is more dangerous to them than the war Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us. . . . I think that this goes against most peoples usual idea of warfare because most people imagine warfare as non stop fighting, and they think that the most dangerous things to soldiers are guns and bults. In this poem Owen uses comparisons to connect weather and war like iced winds that knive us. Also Owen uses the personification of the clouds to show us that the freezing winter weather conditions attacked them like the actual enemy would Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey. In this poem Owen uses para rhymes such as Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles. Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles, . Owen uses para rhymes to keep a rhythm to the poem but so that it still keeps with the saddness of winter warfare. I think these para rhythms work well because as well as them giving the poem a rhythm they give the poem a structure. Later on in the poem the soldiers begin to hullucinate We cringe in holes,back on forgotten dreams ,and stare sundozed, they do this because they are in stalemate and the waiting is almost sending them insane . They hullucinate about a normal spring day Deep into grassier ditches. So we drowse ,sun-dozed ,Littered with trickling where the blackbird fusses,. This shows us that some if not all of the soldiers are having to dream of a happier place to give the situation they are in some sort of hope,hope that they will once again be home. Also in this stanza Owen asks the question Is it that we are dying? when I read this line I get the impression that they were almost hoping for this in some way. Then the soldiers go home and find the doors and windows locked Shutter and doors ,all closed then they return to reality and the daydream ends. Owen ends this stanza with we turn back to our dying this makes you realise that they have no hope of of escaping the realities of war. Owen also describes why the soldiers are fighting. The reasons are they wanted to sustain their way of life for their children and they felt it was their duty which is understandable. But the reason which I thought was strange is that they had no reason not to. That gave me the impression that Owen was almost trying to say that because they had no reason for them to join the army their lives were wasted. The soldiers in this poem that have died from the winter are buried by the burying party, later on in the poem they are described as half known facesand All their eyes are ice,. I think Owen describes them as half known faces because they are dead so they are not really people anymore. They are described as Their eyes are ice, because people say the eyes are the gate way to the soul and because they are dead they have no soul anymore. I think these phrases work well because it give us great imagery and shows us that some of the soldiers didnt die peacefully. Throughout this poem Owen expresses his anger towards the people who died unnecessarily as a result of winter weather conditions in the First World War. Sucide in the trenches was written by Sassoon, it describes what being in the trenches could do to the most positive of people. In this poem Sassoon uses simple rhymes, phrases and adjectives to bluntly describe how a young soldier took his own life. In the first stanza the soldier is described as I knew a simple soldier boy Who grinned at life in empty joy , he may have been described this way because he was uneducated and a very positive person. Then in the second stanza he explains things that contributed to his collapse With crumps and lice and lack of rum crumps are the constant loud noise of the shell bursts with deafened some soldiers. However, the main thing in this stanza was In winter trenches, cowed and glum, in this line Sassoon tells us that the soldier is in winter warfare, we have already seen the effect of winter wafare in Owens poem Exposure . Then in the end of the second stanza Sassoon shocks you by describing the soldiers suicide very bluntly He shot a bullet through his brain. No one spoke of him again. when I read this line it made me sit up and think. Sassoon uses asteristiers to give you a moment to think. Then he attacks you with You smug-faced crowds with kindeling eye . Then he ends this stanza in saddness which I think works very well due to the contrast with the rest of the poem Sneak home and pray youll never know The hell where youth and laughter go. In this last stanza Sassoon is expressing his anger mainly towards the people back in Britian who pressure the soldiers into going to warfare without having any idea of the realities of war.