Introduction
During the World War 1, about 10 million soldiers and 7 million civilians lost their lives (Poetry Foundation 1). The aftermath of the war and its horrors made the poets, film actors and writers to respond in new ways to the losses and the brutalities. The World War I poets set about shattering long-standing war myths – its honor, glory, camaraderie and so on. The poets did not write in praise of the heroes, nor about their lands, deed, power, dominion, majesty, might, honor, or glory except war, that the pity of war. The poems before World War 1 praised old virtues of glory, heroism, duty and honor while the after war poems debunked from these myths. The poems after 1915 were skeptical to these lofty abstractions and had moral elusiveness through bitter irony and realism. These war myths will be discussed as well as how the poets tried to debunk them (Poetry Foundation 1). Also, consideration to what extent the War poets were successful and whether people still believe in some of these myths will be examined. Through depictions of the horrific battle in poetry, the later poems after World War 1 mark a significant shift in how we view sacrifice and war.
There have been many long-standing war myths for a very long time such as glory, heroism, duty, camaraderie and honor. Packer pointed out that in 1914, the ancient verities of glory and honor were still standing when the soldier-poets of England matched off to France to fight (para 1). Many of the poets who fought in the trenches died in war while still believing in the war myths or still tied to the 19th-century conventions while trying to express the industrial warfare’s unprecedented horror.
The war myths were widespread as cited by Packer, who pointed out a story in a newspaper of a London man who committed suicide because he was concerned that he might not be recruited in the Great War service. Similarly, Packer highlighted the story of Tim O’Brien, an opponent of Vietnam War, who was a liberal supporter to McCarthy Eugene, who lives in Minnesota town and was aged twenty-one years. Tim O’Brien submitted voluntarily to the United States Army for induction. He could not bring himself to go against the odd balance between the people he knew, the order he knew and his own private world. In his Vietnam memoir of 1973, Tim O’Brien wrote that if he died in the combat zone, it was not that he valued the order, but also he feared its other side. That is the inevitable censure, chaos, and the embarrassment. This shows how Tim O’Brien feared dishonor after the Great War (para 2).
Parker also highlighted the story of Brian Turner and what led him to volunteer for United States army, and to go ahead to war in Iraq as the team leader of infantry. Turner stated that he joined the infantry by signing the papers because, at one point in the life of a hero, he is supposed to say “I swear.” He further stated that he swore those words because he would have been ashamed in the future years he could not have done that, even if anyone he cares most ever given thought about it, or even if it did not make sense. This shows how Turner believed in the war myths of being a hero by joining the military and going to war (Para 3).
The Week defined poetry as the spontaneous overflow of the feelings that are powerful. There is no human experience area that has generated a large, powerful feelings like war (para 1). These powerful feelings include hatred, humiliation and exhilaration, fear and hope not only for the war profiteers but also to the generals and the enemy. Similarly, love feelings were generated for the children and women left behind, for the fellow soldiers, for the cause and the country too (The Week 1). The poets tried to debunk these myths in several ways as illustrated by different poems and poets.
The poem of “To His Love,” by Ivor Gurney does not praise the common themes in a war like the heroes, their lands, deed, power, dominion, majesty, might, honor, or glory. The poem “To His Love” by Gurney begins as an elegy lamenting the demise of a comrade and a friend who has fallen. The poems take a monolog form where the poet speaks to the girlfriend or the fiancé of the fallen soldier. He mourns and have regret that neither he nor the fiancé will ever have the pleasure of getting company of the dead soldier again.
The title of the poem, “To His Love “is addressed to the fiancée of the fallen soldier. The poem does not follow the traditional praises of heroes, but the narrator is mourning
The poem begins with a sad and blunt loss statement where the poet explains that a man who was loved passed away. Their plans they had with the deceased are not meaningless. Moreover, they will never meander around the hills in England.
“He’s gone, and all our plans
Are useless indeed.
We’ll walk no more on Cotswolds”
In the second stanza, Gurney contrast between the beautiful scene that is peaceful and horror in the war when he was a soldier. He is not praising gallant fighting in the war but instead praises the peaceful scenery.
“His body that was so quick
Is not as you
Knew it, on Severn River
Under the blue
Driving our small boat through.”
In the fourth stanza, the audience is lulled to believe that “Cover him, cover him soon” shows a burial to the dead soldier that is honorable or out of the intense love for a comrade soldier. However, the truth is that the dead body is not even recognizable, and there is desperation to hide the corpse that is shredded. Gurney, in fact, described the body as “red wet/ Thing.” The author is hopeful that someday he will able to forget the bloody, shredded body vision. Memory repression is the hope of the author when stated that “Thing I must somehow forget.”
In summary, the poem “To His Love,” by Ivor Gurney shows how it debunked form long standing war myths by describing the narrator’s profound sense of loss. The violence of the war transformed the body of his friend. He is of the opinion that the death of his friend was noble, but the vision of the disfigured he sees in his memory should cover in “violets of pride.” However, in the end, the narrator is struggling to banish the picture of the body from his thoughts.
Just like in the poem of “To His Love,” the poem of “On passing the new Menin Gate” by Siegfried Sassoon also does not praise the common themes in a war like the heroes, their lands, deed, power, dominion, majesty, might, honor, or glory. To tone of the poet in the poem of “On passing the new Menin Gate” is one of contempt and disgust. Sassoon wrote the poem to the civilians around the globe who have an interest in World War 1. The poet begins by accusing the civilians and the reader by questioning immediately and directly
Who will remember, passing through this Gate,
The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?
This beginning accuses the civilians and the reader of neglecting of honoring “the dead” properly. The poet is mourning because there is no one to “absolve” the men. That is they cannot be offered Cristian burial that is proper because they went missing
Sassoon suggests that the gate of the “Sepulchre of crime” degrades the men who went missing, whose memory has been reduced to what he called “nameless names.” That is, there are several names on the gate that individuality of a dead soldier is erased and the list of names become meaningless.
Similar, the author debunks the common myths in the war of praising the heroes of soldiers by stating that the gate is criminal. This is because of the hypocrisy being practiced by the authorities who erected it. “Their name liveth for evermore’ the Gateway claims.” The intentional use of “claim” in the poem shows that the gate is representing a false mourning and honor. This is further contrasted by the dead’s imagery that “”struggled in the slime” and “endured that sullen swamp.”
Given that Sassoon wrote the poem after the war, it shows the scars that were left by the soldiers who survived the war, who felt, that their sacrifices went unrecognized and unpaid.
Another poem that debunked the long held war myths was “The Rear-guard” by Siegfried Sassoon. This poem described an event during the Arras battle in 1917 where the narrator gives a description of a soldier who is desperately trying to make an escape from the underground tunnels that are polluted. The senses of the soldier have been compromised, and he is trying to get some air of the night on the battlefield. The poem brings out the real sense of terror and horror and does not embrace the traditional war myths such as glory, heroism, duty, camaraderie and honor (Sassoon 1).
The poem does not bring the wars rosy picture on the western front. The poet joined the British army out of an intense sense of patriotism at the beginning of World War 1. Through this poem, the reader gets to know that the romantic notion of war is not real since it reflects the war’s harsh realities that have been covered by the propaganda or war. The theme of the poem being brought out is the humanity ignorance resulted in great suffering, which is a tragedy.
The first stanza of the poem describes the “patching glare” that indicates light but also shows the tunnels foulness with the description of “unwholesome air.” The unwholesome air most likely is describing the smell of decomposing dead bodies of gas attack (Sassoon 1). In the second stanza, the narrator describes the old luxuries and comfort such as the mattress from the bed, the smashed mirror. It is evident that in the tunnels men were living. “Rosy gloom” also stood out in the poem sine they are opposite each other. Rosy suggest rose color that shows hope or a promising future while gloom suggests darkness, dejection, hopelessness or lowness in spirit. This shows the soldiers feeling; trying to be hopeful but war showing hopelessness. Similarly, it describes the gloomy dark tunnels interrupted by the flashlights of the soldier that create rosiness (Sassoon 1).
In the third stanza, the soldier trips which shows that he is still not aware of his surroundings. The soldier is also described as an envying comrade who is sleeping. He asks where he could get the headquarters, but he does not get a reply. Out of frustration, he yells to show his annoyance. “For days he’d had no sleep,” in the parentheses shows the soldiers envy of the man sleeping and his impatience (Sassoon 1). He was impatient because the sleeping man could not answer him and envious because for many days he has not been able to sleep.
In the fourth stanza, the soldier realizes that he is ignorant for asking help from a dead man to guide him through the tunnels that are stinking. The poem depicts the terror of war as the stanza shows that the poet has no one to turn to. Finally, in the last stanza, the soldier realizes that he has to make an escape on his own. The poem has debunked from the war myths of praising heroes to bring out the terror in war (Sassoon 1).
It is believed that to a large extent, the war poets were successful in debunking the popularly held beliefs and myths of war. Many writers and poet post the Iraq and Afghanistan wars also come out to debunk the commonly held war myths. For instance, Parker highlighted the case of Kevin Powers who joined the army with a belief that it will make him a man (para 3). Many soldier-writers who came out to write their post-war stories after navigating through several clichés. Their central theme is the horror of war because war starts in illusions ends in tears and blood. The soldiers go to war for the cause of their country and wind up battling for one another. As Sassoon stated, soldiers are dreamers because no soldier returns home the same person from war. War has no truth, just the experience of each soldier. Also, it opens a gap that is unbridgeable between the civilians and soldiers (para 4).
However, it is evident that people still believe in these myths because many young people continue joining the military to be heroes, because they are patriotic to their country, because of honor, their lands, deed, power, dominion, majesty, might, honor, or glory. However, after the war, many soldiers face horror and come to the realization that the patriotic propaganda was just war myths.
Work cited
Poetry Foundation,. ‘The Poetry Of World War I By The Editors’. Poetryfoundation.org. N.p., 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.< http://www.poetryfoundation.org/article/248460>
The Week,. ‘Twelve Great First World War Poems’. The Week UK. N.p., 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.< http://www.theweek.co.uk/arts-life/59798/twelve-great-first-world-war-poems>
Maxwell, Glyn. ‘Ivor Gurney’S “To His Love”’. The Paris Review. N.p., 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.< www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/11/11/glyn-maxwell-on-to-his-love/ >
Packer, George. ‘Home Fires – The New Yorker’. The New Yorker. N.p., 2014. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.< http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/04/07/home-fires-2 >
Sassoon, Siegfried. ‘The Rear-Guard By Siegfried Sassoon : The Poetry Foundation’. Poetryfoundation.org. N.p., 2015. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.< http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/248320>
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