War Poetry Essays (Examples)

Dead Body in War Poetry
Analysis of Poets

War Poetry

War is a brutal reality on the face of history. Thousands of lives have been wasted in the name of battles and millions of people were affected by it. Poet is a rather sensitive part of our society and feels the brutality of war more than a normal individual. During World War I, the world went through havoc during which millions of lives were shaken. In this era, a lot of poets also emerged due to the depression the society went through. Some of the noticeable names out of these are Wilfred, Thomas Hardy, Isaac osenberg and upert Brooke. These poets had a lot of differences in their personalities and writing styles however one thing was rather common: they used soldier's dead body as a symbol of death while describing war. Although they way they used it, was different in…

" In the context of a war poetry, this metaphor emphasizes the greatest honor a citizen of a state can embrace is to die for his land. Obviously, Owen uses this phrase in an ironical manner, circularly ending his poem by noting: "The old lie; Dulce et decorum est Pro Patria Mori."
In terms of word registry, the poem is pretty much similar to the previous ones, meaning it emphasizes the effects the war has on soldier, the misery, the pain, the blood and the injuries. Words regarding weapons do not appear in the title, but the author uses them with a high frequency. Therefore, regarding specific actions of warfare, one can identify "hoots," "distant rest," "helmets," "lime," "panes," "to gutter" and so on. By comparing all poems presented above, it seems that Owen creates the most detailed picture and atmosphere, which could be explained by the fact that he…

It makes sense, then, that H.G. ells once "said he would 'rather be called a journalist than an artist'" (ells qtd. In McConnell 176). If the dangers of the twentieth century would come from the way unrestricted scientific advancement coupled with self-interest results in new, terrifying methods of industrialized slaughter, then the particular mode or perspective of the artist, as an opposed to the journalist, would be insufficient or irrelevant. In other words, if both the journalist and the artist seek truth, but the artist also seeks beauty, then the journalist is actually the one better suited for a world in which beauty has been overwhelmed by death and destruction on a scale and with a swiftness heretofore unimagined.

The narrator of The ar of the orlds reflects this shift, because he tells his story with as little artifice and characterization as possible, instead opting to describe the "death […]…

ar Is Permanent
"Nothing, nothing will ever be the same" is the last line in Peg Lauber's poem "Six National Guardsmen Blown Up Together." And it's true; nothing is the same after war. The ravages of war and conflict are permanent, indelible. This is a theme that is explored in the aforementioned Peg Lauber poem as well as in the poem "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa. It is the purpose of this paper to explore the meaning of, and thematic import of, permanence in these two plangent war poems.

"Facing It" is a poem about Vietnam. The speaker of the poem is at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in ashington, D.C. He is looking into its black reflective gabbro walls, "My black face fades, / hiding inside the black granite" (Komunyakaa). He is confronting (facing) the unbearable cost of war. And he realizes that he is at once both a part…

Despite all the graphic, inventive detailed descriptions of the physical suffering and the mental anguish Turner has endured, in the end, it is the cliche, metaphoric image of a breaking heart that sends the strongest message. It should break any human being's heart to kill, and those who are not emotionally torn up by taking another human being's life are therefore, essentially heartless.
There is also an indication in Here, Bullet, that it is not only the heart that malfunctions in the throes of death and killing, but the brain as well. hen Turner speaks of "the leap thought makes at the synaptic gap" he is symbolizing the leap a person's mind is forced to make from have a respect for life and compassion for mankind to suddenly believe that it is okay to kill, maim and torture in the name of your country. Thus from Turner's point-of-view, after being…

These young men were not immersed in the high modernist traditions of Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot: rather, they were immersed in the experience of war and their own visceral response to the horrors they witnessed.
Thus a multifaceted, rather than strictly comparative approach might be the most illuminating way to study this period of history and literature. Cross-cultural, comparative literary analysis is always imperfect, particularly given the linguistic challenges presented by evaluating German poetry in relation to its British counterparts. Contextualizing the British war poets requires a certain level of understanding how the war was seen by the other side, and by alien eyes. More is likely to be gained than lost by reading the German war poets in translation. Yet reading the German poets in translation allows the reader to appreciate the influence of symbolism and expressionism in their work that was not present even in the harsh…

Flanders Fields: A World War I Poem Written by John McRae
The poem "In Flanders Fields" was written by John McRae, Canadian soldier, surgeon, and last, but not least, a poet, during World War I. McRae's poem gives a voice to those who died fighting in the war. Flanders Fields is reported to have been "the generic name of the World War I battlefields under the medieval County of Flanders." Golden Map, nd, p.1) In Flanders Fields was penned by McRae during the War Poetry Movement, a time during World War I when many poets penned poetry relating the battlefield tragedies. The primary themes in McRae's poems were death, revenge, and honor. Righter, 2008, p.1) The most famous of all his poems is "In Flanders Field" in which the idea of a tragic theme of war is related. Righter, 2008, paraphrased) A great deal of symbolism is used by McRae…

3. Effects of sound -- The sound of the poem is evocative of action, words like BEHIND, JUMPED, SPIT, combining humor and active verbs.

4. Images -- The image makes the owl human, but part of nature; and an explanation for the natural world (rain) told in a way that children might think- cause and effect.

5. Emotions/Evocative, Alterative -- Teaches children that owls are wise, that nature is not meant to be captured; the poem is evocative and a journey.

6. Message -- a bit ecologic, owls part of nature, and not meant to be caught, but meant to be part of the world in which a child's imagination might inhabit.

Find and analyze TWO songs w/lyrics - these may be types or genre identified above, and/or holiday songs, hymns and spiritual songs, or patriotic. MAKE SURE THEY ARE TWO DIFFERENT GENRE. How might you present these as poetry…

Fern Hill (Dylan Thomas)
The "Poetry Explications" handout from UNC states that a poetry explication is a "relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationship of the words, images, and other small units that make up a poem."

The speaker in "Fern Hill" dramatically embraces memories from his childhood days at his uncle's farm, when the world was innocent; the second part brings out the speaker's loss of innocence and transition into manhood. This explication will identify and critique Thomas' tone, imagery (including metaphors) and expressive language (as it contributes to the power of the poem). ("Fern Hill" uses 6 verse paragraphs; there are 9 lines in each paragraph.)

"Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs / About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green / the night above the dingle starry / time let me hail and climb / golden…

The need for effective resistance, and a banding together of citizens against states that engage in armed conflict is one of the dominant themes of "ar."
Pirandello's use of an omniscient, observing and dispassionate narrative voice enables him to switch focus, midway through the very short story, and turn the reader's attention to a large, overweight man who makes a somewhat incoherent argument for the importance of sacrificing one's children for the Country. He says that sons and daughters do not belong to their parents, but to their Country, and it is natural and fitting "decent" boys would consider their love for their country greater than their love for their parents. Similarly, he notes that every parent would take his or her boy's place on the front lines, again out of love for the Country. 'Country' for citizens is as necessary as bread, the man says (Pirandello 107).

However, while…

He lay in the center of a red clay trail near the village of My Khe. His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut, the other eye had a star shaped hole. I killed him." (O'Brien 180). Very similar observations can be made about Turner's poetry. Turner uses highly descriptive language when he expresses his view of "bone and gristle and flesh," the clavicle-snapped wish" and, "the aorta's opened valves" in Here, Bullet. These images are immensely disturbing yet at the same time, surprisingly lyrical. The ability to combine these two opposing sentiments into a seamless flow of expression is a rare talent; one that both O'Brien and Turner possess in abundance.
Conclusion

hile O'Brien chooses to express his experiences through prose, and Turner chooses poetry as his medium, the sentiments being relayed are remarkably similar. Each of the literary works discussed here demonstrates that it does…

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,/as under a green sea, I saw him drowning./in all my dreams before my helpless sight / He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning./if in some smothering dreams, you too could pace/Behind the wagon that we flung him in,/and watch the white eyes writhing in his face,/His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,/if you could hear, at every jolt, the blood/Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs/Bitter as the cud / of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, -- / My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/to children ardent for some desperate glory,/the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori. (Owen)

This is not how Owen "might" respond to patriotism this is a direct assault upon it. The words of Dali ring true as the toll of war is counted up among the youthful wasted…

ar at Home in Ellison, ar Abroad in O'Brien
The inhumanity of war is a common theme in literature, as brilliantly illustrated in Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," a tale that functions as a short story but is actually an excerpt from his great novel about the Vietnam ar Going after Cacciato. In O'Brien's story, several soldiers fighting in Vietnam are defined by the objects they carry in their pockets, such as photographs of loved ones, as well as their military gear and outfits. Yet the battles of individuals oppressed by society, such as African-Americans, may be equally, if not more, soul destroying, when conducted on the home front of America, on daily basis. This fact is evidenced by the evisceration of the spirit of the young African-American men in an excerpt from Ralph Ellison's seminal novel Invisible Man, entitled, "Battle Royal."

In "Battle Royal," the best and brightest…

In the novel, Howad is foced to seve as an U.S. secet Agent by the Blue Faiy, a caee that eventually led to his own death.
Mothe Night epesents the fictional memois of Howad W. Campbell J., an Ameican who seved as a secet agent fo the Ameican Amy duing the Second Wold Wa. Giving that the actual autho of the novel seved himself as a soldie duing the same wa, the question of whethe o not the autho esembles the potagonist in the novel is undestandable. Pehaps one of the visions they shae is the eality of facts, Mothe Night being Vonnegut's only novel that does not featue fantastic elements. Vonnegut wote "We ae what we petend to be, so we must be caeful about what we petend to be," as the final moal fo his novel and one thing Campbell and Vonnegut shae afte all is thei vocation…

poetry of Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg
Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg are both important poets in their own right. Although they both grew up in the same era, their poetry styles have many differences. The paper firstly states their different origin, history and poetic style. Secondly, it analyzes a selected major work - "The Road Not Taken" and "The Road and The End," - of Frost and Sandburg respectively. It is worth noticing that the chosen poetries of both poets contain many elements of similarity. This makes the chosen sample most suitable to distinguish the most minor, as well as the major differences in the poetic styles of the writers. Thus, in the paper, their lives and poetry styles are compared and contrasted using an example of their poetry.

About Robert Frost

As we read of Frost, we grow in awe of him - his thinking, his understanding, his…

" There is a more calm feeling to his description. This is not to say that the author was portraying war as being a patriotic act, but the author was not as graphical in his describing what the soldiers were seeing and going through. The reader is more connected to the actions of the poem and not the fact that someone is dying. He ends his poem by referencing "hell" and the reader is left wondering whether the hell that he is referring to the war that is being left behind, or to dying itself.
3) Rites of Passage Activity

In speaking to my grandmother, I was able to find out what it was that she took when she first left her home. At the age of sixteen, she was married to my grandfather and was getting ready to start her knew life as a wife and very soon, as…

Irish poetry is unavoidably shaped by its historical, social, and political context. The Troubles have infiltrated poets throughout several generations, permitting unique artistic insight into the conflict. Younger poets writing about The Troubles in Northern Ireland understandably have a different point-of-view than poets from a previous generation. Their personal experiences were different, and the historical events they witnessed or were surrounded by in the media likewise differed from their predecessors. Yet there are also shared themes that provide the inextricable cultural links between all poets of Northern Ireland. Some poets, like Seamus Heaney, rely heavily on literalism and a direct political commentary in addition to poetic tropes like symbols of colonization. Likewise, Derek Mahon does not hold back in terms of diction related to The Troubles. hen examining poets from an earlier generation, who wrote during some of the most violent occasions of The Troubles, allusions and metaphors seem to…

WWI and Literature
World War I was certainly one of the most productive periods in literature with millions of poets and authors emerging on the scene and each one contributing tremendously to the growth and progress of literature. It is quite strange that while WWI was a deeply disturbing and a largely horrifying experience for most countries, it inspired writers and poets around the globe and this resulted in significant growth of world literature.

In England alone, more than 2000 poets emerged during this period as Harvey (1993) elaborates: "From the very first week, the 1914-18 war inspired enormous quantities of poetry and fiction. The claim that three million war poems were written in Germany in the first six months of hostilities is difficult to substantiate, but Catherine W. eilly has counted 2,225 English poets of the First World War, of whom 1,808 were civilians. For example, William Watson (then…

Frost's Poetry And Landscape
The Rise of Modernist Poetry

Between the years of 1912 and 1914 the entire temper of the American arts changed. America's cultural coming-of-age occurred and writing in the U.S. moved from a period entitled traditional to modernized. It seems as though everywhere, in that Year of 1913, barriers went down and People reached each other who had never been in touch before; there were all sorts of new ways to communicate as well as new communications. The new spirit was abroad and swept us all together. These changes engaged an America of rising intellectual opportunities and intensifying artistic preoccupation.

With the changing of the century, the old styles were considered increasingly obsolete, and the greatest impact was on American arts. The changes went deep, suggesting ending the narrowness that had seemed to limit the free development of American culture for so long. That mood was not…

This is why wars are fought with bloodletting, why torture takes place, and why neither violence nor war is limited to the physical carnage of the battlefield.
Nordstrom 59)

The early death of Clifton's mother, as a result of having to powerlessly rely on a liar and a letch who could not provide for his family, is the ultimate example of self-inflicted violence, as is Gillman's character resorting to an expression of madness to resist her powerlessness. It was only slightly more "appropriate" for a women to realize madness as it was for her to throw herself from a three story window.

orks Cited

Clifton, Lucille "forgiving my father" in Schilb, John & Clifford, John. Making Literature Matter 3rd Edition. New York: Bedford, St. Martin's, 2005, 314.

Gelfant, Blanche H., and Lawrence Graver, eds. The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.

Gillman,…

Death brings the poet closer to a sense of peace with life. As part of the earth, death will return him back to the earth. He writes:
depart as air -- I shake my white locks at the runaway sun; effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

A bequeathe myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love;

If you want me again, look for me under your boot-soles. (1334-7)

Here the poet is expressing that he is comfortable with death and dying and it seems as though he is encouraging the reader to be at peace with death as well.

Being at peace with death does not always mean being immune to the pain it brings. e see the poet's reaction to death in "hen Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." Abraham Lincoln is forever connected to the Civil ar and in this…

Motivation of Writing Poetry
According to Benjamin Saenz

Why Poetry: the Definition and Motivation of Writing Poetry According to Benjamin Saenz

In his narrative at the end of Elegies in Blue, Benjamin Saenz says that when he first started writing poetry, he was "learning a new language" (Saenz 1, 95), and in his essay, Meditations on Writing: A Novena, he says that "every language is a way of translating the world, and that no language translates the world without a particular bias" (Saenz 2, para. 31). The act of writing poetry, therefore, is an attempt to translate the world and one's experience within the world via a particular language; while the motivation to write poetry stems from an innate desire to communicate experience.

Whose experience? In Elegies Saenz endeavors to communicate his own experience, as well as that of his family and fellow Chicano countryman. "I live on the border,"…

Romantic ideal in the poetry of William Blake, William Wordsworth and Walt Whitman shares the attitude that the most worthy part of human existence lies in simplicity and deep emotion rather than rational thought. Romanticism is based upon a movement away from the rationality of Enlightenment and the wealth-driven society inspired by Industrialism. This ideal is reflected in the work of the poets mentioned above. To demonstrate this, "The Chimney weeper," "Ode: Imitations of Immortality" and "I ing the Body Electric" from each respective poet are considered.
William Blake

Blake's poetry emphasizes the evils of existing power systems within society, and how these are used to oppress the poor and powerless. This is shown in his poem "The Chimney weeper." The little chimney sweeper is representative of the poor and oppressed suffering under the current systems of power. The parents and the church are images reflecting the oppressive forces. The…

Race in Poetry
A Topic of Constant Relevance

The importance of race in the United States is discussed on many levels, from nightly newscasts to political campaigns to courtrooms. It is the conversation that never ends in this nation. The particulars change, a little, but the cadence is the same, and the sorrows are the same, and the regrets and anger persist. It seems likely that in a thousand years (if there is an America in a thousand years) that our national dialogue will still be about race. This paper examines a set of poems that take up the issue of race.

While poetry is hardly likely to be the first thing that one thinks of when seeking to understand race in America, the two poems analyzes here both make trenchant points about what it is like to be a person of color in the United States. This paper analyzes…

All because of a racially fueled hatred that exaggerated the nature of the merciless war. This image of the cruelty and heartless Japanese is what eventually allowed the American people and government to justify the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The racist attitudes clearly clouded the United State's commitment to defending Democracy, both abroad and within its own borders. One of the worst examples of this merciless prejudice was the removal of the Japanese from cities along the West Coast in Executive Order. The internment of hundreds of thousands of Japanese-Americans clearly threatened the mage of democracy here at home, in the U.S. borders. The research suggests that "after the American entry into the war against Japan, the U.S. military imposed curfews and other restrictions on persons of Japanese descent living on the West Coast, including both naturalized native American citizens, and eventually 'excluded' mot Japanese-Americans from certain Western…

It shows how the culture of America was changing, and that unrest was eginning all across the nation ecause of the war, the companies and government ehind it, and the inequity of it all. It comines all these people and allows the reader to meet them, understand them, and then make up their own mind aout them. For example, the author compares two of the profiles in the ook, an Army commander, and a college protester. He writes, "Just as Army commander Terry de la Mesa Allen Jr. was shaped y the traditions of his father and grandfather efore him, so too was antiwar activist Paul Richard Soglin" (Maraniss 94). It seems these two young men, so far apart in time, place, and outlook, would have nothing in common, and yet, the author shows they do, and it is this commonality that proves to e the ackone of this ook.…

Voyna I Mir and War & Peace
A Survey of Voyna I Mir and War and Peace

Both the 1956 American film adaptation of War and Peace and the 1965 ussian Voyna I Mir attempt to bring Tolstoy's epic novel to life on the screen. This paper will compare and contrast both film adaptations with the novel and history, and discuss the how each bears its own main idea, its own unique set design and costuming, and its own actors and actresses.

War and Peace (1956) is a film of genuine Hollywood spectacle -- which is to say of grand artifices and shallow substance. The 1965 lengthy (eight hour) ussian version is a spectacular marvel of realism, beauty, and authenticity. While it is impossible to capture the entire magic of Tolstoy's epic novel on film, both versions give a kind of epic interpretation of Tolstoy's work -- both creating their…

The narrative, reporting-driven style of this book also draws criticism for rarely making conclusions or passing judgment on the characters and actions that he recounts in such detail. Some of Woodward's critics accuse him of abandoning critical inquiry to maintain his access to high-profile political actors.

Others praise his detached and evenhanded style for allowing readers to absorb the facts and come to their own conclusions. From a factual standpoint, Woodward's balanced account of the events seems to agree with other sources, such as Ari Fleischer's Taking Heat.

No reporter has more talent for getting Washington's inside story and telling it cogently.

In a Washington Post review of the book, Fouad Ajami said in 2002, "Why Woodward's sources divulge to him the deep inner workings of government shall remain a mystery of the craft. He lives by the leak, and the leaks are here in ample supply - memos and…

This constant interaction with the press and their barrage of (sometimes) irrational questions, and the way that he handled such interaction, led him to more of a comfortable, and comfortable individual.
Condoleezza Rice was also portrayed in a very confident light, and the reader is often surprised to discover that she was many times a guiding force in regards to how the main characters of the book interacted. Another surprising aspect concerning Rice is the large degree of confidence President Bush has in her judgment.

Oftentimes Rice is portrayed in the book as a coordinator, and she believed that was her role. "...she didn't feel it was her place to tell the president that this wasn't likely or possible. She was a coordinator. If pressed hard after the president had heard the views of the others, she would give her opinion, but only then." (pg 144).

Rice's role as coordinator…

Women in War and Violence
Women War and Violence

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the theory of being and becoming, and to discuss how this theory relates to war and violence in Virginia Woolf's portrayal of female characters in her novels. Being and becoming relates the theories of existence, and how one becomes and matures as an entity in society. It is evident throughout Woolf's lifetime that her character's evolve from simple creatures consumed with thoughts of darkness and death, that through a myriad of experiences with power, control, and pain they are able to transform their lives from simple existence into complex portrayals of beauty and lives that reflect the art of becoming human beings consumed with the beauty of all life has to offer.

Analysis

To understand being and becoming, and how this relationship exists with regard to war and violence, and further with Woolf…

The rash, brash young soldier Claudio is betrothed to Hero, who adores him, but because of the male code of the military he has been raised to believe in, he tends to assume the worst of women rather than the best. On their wedding-day, he shames Hero unjustly, even though nothing in her manner indicates she has changed: "You seem to me as Dian in her orb, / as chaste as is the bud ere it be blown" (4.1). In this male-dominated society, where women are aliens and suspect, even the supposedly wise Don Pedro believes the slander at first: "hy, then are you no maiden" (4.1).
But mistrust and a refusal to sympathize with another are not limited to times of turmoil, or emotionally fraught relationships like marriage. Even the relationship of parent to child becomes perverted in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The scientist and doctor is so determined to…

Tomorrow when War began: Homer's perspective
Writing a few years after the event when I am quite an elderly man and musing about the account that somehow or other made its way back into the past and interested an exceptionally large audience (many of them young I understand), I have to remark that Ellie's account was super-exaggerated.

Possibly, readers like stories where everything works out well for young individuals and where, given our alleged immortality we remain unscathed by incidents. It makes me wonder how Ellie could deceive herself into thinking that the readers would be so gullible as to believe her, and, indeed, this is just what they seem to do. Australia has never been invaded, and never likely well (God-bless our national home!), but Wirrawee was, indeed, totally destroyed and its citizens captured by the enemy.

It was not so easy -- as Ellie -- implied to turn…

Postmodernism in arsan Shire's Poetry
Born in Kenya, Somali-origin writer arsan Shire pens poems that are an uncompromising depiction of an African outlook. This London-based poet's work emphasizes the continent's culture, challenges, armed conflict, societal beliefs, and other negative issues impacting its people. The majority of Shire's works are a reflection of self-experience, steady testimonies and prayer. She attempts to portray the society, from kids', females', lovers' and migrants' standpoints. Thus, a majority of her poems reflect postmodernism. She aims at presenting a systematic personal outlook using her superior knowledge on societal aspects and values. In this paper, the following three poems composed by Shire -- 'Home', 'Ugly', and 'The letter my mum would have written had she known English' -- will be analyzed for postmodernism and for Shire's representation of Africans.

Ugly

This is an unusual piece of poetry wherein Shire reveals her fears being a woman in the…

Henry eed is a free-versed and metaphorical poem; because of the word "we," I can say that the speaker in the person uses the first person point-of-view.
"Naming of Parts" talks about an issue termed as "the problem of war" by military historians and philosophers. In simpler language, the problem is determining whether 'war is war' is a continually recurring part of the life of human beings or a totally unexpected occurrence, a deviation from the norm. A partial answer to this question has been provided by eed's poem. In eeds opinion, militarism and war are not natural. For instance, in the first stanza, eed uses a significant choice of the red-flowered Japonica. Like its name suggests, "Japanese quince" or japonica refers to something that is related to Japan- a member of the Axis powers that were allied against the U.S. and England in the Second World War. (Being an…

Antjie Krog's Country Of Grief And Grace
Antjie Krog (2000) uses metaphor and extended metaphor throughout the poem "Country of Grief and Grace" -- itself an exploration of existential crisis in South Africa, ravaged by apartheid and violence. Krog descends into this maelstrom to provide the reader a glimpse, a hope, a ray of light that beams through the sludge of hopelessness, despair and grief. Through her use of metaphor and extended metaphor, Krog constructs an alternate way of looking at the world in which she lives -- a framework that invites the reader to question the borders and boundaries of time and space which keep separate the past and the future, the young and the old, the black and the white. By merging or synthesizing the elements of her country into a cohesive whole, Krog shows that all is one -- and in this revelation is the seed of…

This poem is also about someone close to the poet who has passed, but instead of juxtaposing presence and absence as Levine did, Amichai instead contrasts terror and joy, youth and death, and violence and peace.
The first opposition is built in the first stanza, where the poet points out the reversal of age and wisdom brought about by Dicky's early death. Before he died, Dicky was "four years older [and]…like a father" (3) to the poet. But Amichai has continued past Dicky into old age, and now he is "[the] father, old and grieving" (6).

The contrasts become more concrete as the poem progresses. The third stanza sets "the departure to terrible battles" (11) against the light, bright imagery of "gardens and windows / and children playing" (12-13). The tension established by this image of soldiers marching through blossoms and children's playgrounds sets the reader up for the more…

Life's Subjections: Changes To The ays Of Life Found In Tolstoy's ar And Peace
ar and Peace is a truly epic novel in that details a number of important themes as well as major events in the lives of its characters. In this respect it actually uncovers some of the most major events that are bound to take place throughout a person's life -- birth, death, marriage, divorce, war and peace. hat makes this particular novel so compelling is the fact that it largely depicts these life altering events through the fates of a couple of aristocratic Russian families during the time in which the usurper Napoleon Bonaparte is wreaking havoc on the European continent in the early part of the 19th century. As such, there is a certain romantic quality to this tale and to the life-altering events it depicts of people who in some cases are noble personages…

Illiad
Argue whether the poetry/text presents the author as pilgrim or as tourist on a wartime journey

The distinction between the tourist and the pilgrim is one that invariably arises when analyzing texts that address war. While it is common for the hero (or author) to discuss war as a theme, a distinction must be made with regard to the way in which the author relates to the war and to the soldiers. In poems where the hero embarks on a journey, his journey can take the shape of either a pilgrimage or a simple tourist trip. Drawing from Donnelly's categorization involving the tourist vs. The pilgrim, this paper analyzes a series of war poems and texts that assume the form of either a pilgrimage or a tourist journey. The pilgrimage refers to an internal journey that is invested in the pilgrimage of war. The hero is profoundly affected by…

Harlem enaissance
Harlem's Poets

Claude McKay and Langston Hughes became like two poster boys for the Harlem enaissance. They burst from the "Harlem Shadows" and underground jazz world into the mainstream, crossing the racial divide to find support and fame not only in America but all over the world. Their poems, however, like African-American music, were co-opted by white culture and exploited for aims entirely divorced from the ethnicity that justified the poems existence in the first place. And, as McKay's own life shows, when the poetry took a deeper, less visceral, more theological turn, the poet was rejected by that same white (Protestant) establishment, which seemed to only want a "jungle fever" type of poetry. This demand of the surrounding white culture is what led the Harlem poets to have a "double consciousness" regarding their poetry. To make it to the top, they still needed the support of the…

There is hardly anything good to say about the Nazis and their reign of terror during World War II. The Nazis were effective and efficient killing machines, and it did not matter if the victim was young or old, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, if they were in the way of the Nazis, they were eliminated. Most literature depicts the Nazis as exceptionally cruel and heartless, and this poem is no exception. Who kills a child simply for laughing? A Nazi, that's who. In fact, in most literature, there is hardly anything good to say about war. There is a long tradition of writing about the causes and effects of war, and most of the literature is graphic and horrific in nature. It depicts the worst parts of war, and depicts it graphically because writers what their readers to share in the feelings and desires of their characters. Even…

" Du Fu, of course, is speaking of the An Lushan Rebellion, which was not put down for nearly a decade in mid-eighth century China.
Emperor u's wars have essentially decimated the land. The lands are barren -- in more ways than one. The consequences of war are numerous: the men are gone, so in villages where couples should normally be uniting and having children, no children are had. The image Du Fu uses is of stark fields where "nothing grows but weeds," but the image could easily be construed as being representative of the lack of new life in the "two hundred districts / And in thousands of villages."

The next image Du Fu employs is one of heartbreaking sorrow: "and though strong women have bent to the ploughing, / East and west the furrows are all broken down." Du Fu's image is akin to the ballads of Ireland,…

Works on War
Boys, I've been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It's entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here. Suppress it! You don't know the horrible aspects of war. I've been through two wars and I know. I've seen cities and homes in ashes. I've seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is hell! -- General William ecumseh Sherman, 1880, to the cadets.

General Sherman truly says it all with his statement, "War is hell." Even if it is to protect one's country and its people, such as World War I or II, war still is the worst thing possible. he British poet Wilfred Owen strongly communicates this…

In the letter, those were rooms 112 and 113 (in the play, 108-109); "It seemed eminently more sensible to live in a part of a hotel which you knew would not be struck by shell fire" the author wrote in the letter (ashington, 2009, p. 1). The point ashington makes vis-a-vis Column is that room 109 wasn't just a "safe" place, it was a place with "good things" like sex, perfume, alcohol, hot water, and yes, food.
The brilliance of Hemingway's narrative -- not just in war themes but also throughout his work -- cannot be over-emphasized. In A Farewell to Arms Hemingway uses the character Frederic as narrator, and Frederic's narration is mainly descriptive, but in its simplicity, it packs a punch. Critic Katie Owens-Murphy explains that when Frederick -- an ambulance driver, not a soldier -- is asked about the war by a bartender, he first replies, "Don't…

Woolf / Women in Violence and War
The current paper deals with the use of stream of consciousness and narrative technique by Virginia Wolf. The author has discussed how Woolf comes and goes in time and space to reveal her inside feelings, and why she used them especially in time of war and domestic violence.

Much has been written about Woolf's use of the stream-of-consciousness technique used widely by other Modernist writers of her time such as DH Lawrance and James Joyce. Stream of Consciousness is the technique use by Woolf and she is considered the pioneer of this technique. The stream of thought was first proposed by William James, Harvard Professor of Psychology in 1890.

Argumentation

In a diary entry that Woolf wrote on the 23 of February in 1926, she compares the writing process she went through while writing Mrs. Dalloway with the process she experienced while writing…

Kennedy's Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, & Vietnam" by Lawrence Freedman, the author looks specifically at John F. Kennedy's role in foreign politics. This book covers in depth the major global emergencies during the Kennedy Presidency, including Berlin, Cuba, and Vietnam.
It is clear Freedman's thesis for writing the book is a convincing attempt to answer the "what if?" question surrounding Kennedy's Presidency, including the possibility of reestablishing cordial relations with Castro and whether he would have pursued the same route as President Johnson did into Vietnam. The author notes, "Questions of what might have been still dominate considerations of Kennedy's presidency, and they are addressed in this book" (Freedman xii). Since Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 before he had the chance to prove and continue his foreign policy, these are valid questions about an administration left hanging. Throughout the book Freedman continually returns to this thesis as he examines each…

Joseph Heller, Catch-22, And War
In his book Catch-22, Joseph Heller used his experiences to satirize many of the things Americans at the time valued, and he used a war Americans viewed as highly justified and extremely successful to do so.

He wrote the book at the end of the Eisenhower Era. Eisenhower, who had successfully mounted the D-Day attack that led to the liberation of Europe and the huge Allied victory that followed, was nearly revered by most Americans. He was seen as a great President and brilliant general. If Heller had chosen a more ambiguous war, for example World War I, his book might have been more accepted. Instead, critics called it "repetitious and monotonous" and an "emotional hodgepodge."

Heller used World War II as an allegory for not only the Cold War but the post-World War II materialism that had emerged in America. TV shows like "Leave…

Further, the modern novel also focuses on issues of social and historical change and the use of such points-of-view as stream of consciousness. Other typical characteristics of modernism are open form, free verse, discontinuous narrative, juxtaposition, classical allusions, unconventional metaphors and the bringing in of other cultures and languages.
Clearly, the experiences of the Great War had a lasting effect on its generation of writers. Many of them served in the military during the war, such as Ernest Hemingway, and witnessed the atrocities personally. The disillusionment felt by this generation at the notion of so many deaths for no real reason created a mentality of pessisims and questioning of society as it has been. This sense of disillusionment was expressed in their writing, where the great writers shunned the traditions of the Romantic and Victorian eras and instead created works that focused on human misery, suffering and cruelty. They incorporated…

Art
"Howl" and "Guernica" Outline

The paper demonstrates the ways in which both pieces of art contemplate and express multiple themes, including those of religion, morality, happiness, life-affirmation, and freedom.

"Howl" is a poem that is both a mourning and a celebration of life.

"Guernica" is an expression of pain and war.

oth works of art have many themes and many of the same themes.

Ginserb, the 1950s, and "Howl"

He composed the poem in the middle of the 1950s, one of the greatest decades in history for mainstream America.

He is heavily influenced by previous poets and by his own lived experiences.

Howl" shows readers how they can be connected to spirituality, religion, and what is sarcred or holy with, and without the use of the formal church.

Poetry is another form of storytelling that is best when read/performed aloud.

Howling, Expression, and Jazz

A. If we are howling,…

" The point made by the poet is similar to the poem above. The reference to John,
The Father of our souls, shall be,

John tells us, doth not yet appear;

is a reference to the Book of Revelations, at the end of the Bible.

That despite the promises of an Eternal life for those who eschew sin, we are still frail and have the faults of people. We are still besought by sin and temptations and there's really no escape. People are people. No matter what we say or do, we find that life is not so simple. Consider this reference, which really refers to a person's frame of reference or "way of seeing."

Wise men are bad -- and good are fools,

This is a paradoxical statement: there is large gap between spirituality and reality. Those we consider wise or bad, might make decisions that are globally profound,…

Simile -- A common device in poetry is the use of comparisons, often comparing something unusual or uncommon with something that is more familiar to the reader or audience. One kind of comparison is the simile, which uses the words like or as and compares two things that are dissimilar in order to bring about a fresh view and new meaning.
An example of a simile that does this is found in Margaret Atwood's "You fit into me," in which she describes the fit of two lovers to each other as "like a hook into an eye." The reader imagines a hook and eye on the band of a skirt or the back of a bra, but then Atwood changes the significance of the simile by becoming more specific. She adds the explanation "A fish hook ... An open eye." The extended simile creates a very painful image of being…

hitman Lens
alt hitman -- From a Different Perspective

alt hitman was inspired by the Transcendentalist Movement which was something of an offshoot of the Romantic Movement. As such, hitman was something of a positive character who embraced diversity and especially democracy. In the preface to Leaves of Grass he wrote "The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem." He was unfettered in his ability to tackle some of the more controversial topics of his day; culture, sexuality, beliefs, and religion. In the 1872 preface he writes[footnoteRef:1]: [1: (Harris)]

The people must begin to learn that religion, (like poetry,) is something far, far different from what they supposed. It is, indeed, too important to the power and perpetuity of the New orld to be consign'd any longer to the churches, old or new, Catholic or Protestant Saint this, or Saint that. It must be consign'd henceforth to democracy en…

Sonnet: Shakespeare's Sonnet 129
I selected this sonnet because it is different from typical sonnets in that it is so angry. Shakespeare is writing not about love but about lust and the awful consequences it can bring to one who submits to it. It is also very graphic but in a subtle and elegant way, such as in the line ("the expense of spirit in a waste of shame"). Shakespeare's conclusion about lust is that while it is fun ("the heaven") it is also bad for one's physical and spiritual health ("this hell"). o me, this poem is a big warning sign to keep control of the passions.

1 Sound Poem: Hugo Ball's "Gadji beri bimba"

his poem is about how words are just sounds, noise, without meaning. It is a Dada poem. Dada is an art movement that satirized the very concept of art. hus, Ball writes a poem…

ilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum est" describes the horrors of orld ar One. ith rich imagery, the poet refers to the gory and horrid details of the "great war," such as "the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, / Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud," and "watch the white eyes writhing in his face, / His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin." Owen's commentary comes directly from personal experience, as the poet served as a soldier in orld ar One. Having witnessed the devastation and death he describes in "Dulce Decorum Est," the poet challenges the popular assumptions of war's glory, honor, and necessity. The title of the poem comes from a Latin phrase meaning "It is sweet and right." The phrase was often used in reference to the First orld ar, to promote morale among soldiers. Owen concludes that the phrase is truly…

Speaking of the United States, for example, since 9/11, there has been an increased in intolerance regarding Muslims. This prejudice toward Muslims has also sparked increased intolerance for Christian people, as Christianity is the dominant religion in America and is the religion most often associated with American culture. 1492 is also the fabled year with the Spanish armada arrived on the shores of what we know now as the United States of America. Therefore this film is a strong choice as it is an intersection of the history of the country and the history of my family.
How we remember our world, national, and personal history is often closely related to the geography and nature of the spaces wherein we lived and migrated to. These are the connections that I see among the texts by Nabokov, Bishop, and "The Passion of Joshua the Jew." These issues from history continue to…

Strength in Themes of Modernist Poetry
Things fall apart, the center cannot hold," wrote Yeats of the modern, human condition. Yeats later poetic vision highlights a central notion in much of modern poetic philosophy, namely that the old ideological and religious structures have begun to unravel in modern life. hat ideologies that once held up the human form and human social norms are no more, in the face of modern war and destruction. The title of this poem "The Second Coming" refers to the fact that the awaited solution to the crisis, that of the second coming of the Messiah, seems no where to be found, and while human beings wait for meaning, it seems to be no where, and all human strength is lost.

However, not all of modern poetry is absent of answers of the lack of strength in the face of the bleak crisis of hopelessness, of…

Symbolism in "The Origin of Stories"
In "The Origin of All Stories" we can see an example of the importance that the Seneca -- a Native American tribe -- placed in their oral tradition, stories, as well as symbolism. Symbolism, especially, figures prominently in "The Origin of All Stories." It is the figurative device through which this story impresses upon readers the importance of storytelling to the Seneca people. Literally, storytelling formed the basis of the sense of history that the Seneca possessed. ithout it, vital cultural information could not have been passed down from generation to generation. The purpose of this essay is to examine some of the usage of symbolism in "The Origin of All Stories" and detail how those examples of symbolism demonstrate the centrality of the oral tradition to the Seneca people.

To begin, I should make it clear what it means that the Seneca had…

Aytch: A Confederate's Memoir of the Civil War
The Civil War was one of the bloodiest periods in American History. In contemporary times it has also proved to be one of the most glamorized periods of American History. Films such as Gone with the Wind and Birth of the Nation both attest to this fact. However, for serious students of the period, there remains a wealth of real life testimony from battlefield, the words of individuals who suffered and died in the service of both Union and Confederate armies. The memoir Co. Aytch: A Confederate's Memoir of the Civil War, is a Civil War battlefield account that is neither beautiful nor romanticized. It is a real life dramatization of the despair often faced by members of the 'losing' army in that particular conflict.

Aytch began his Civil War experience as a relatively idealistic young defender of the new Confederacy. Early…

World War I: Dada
The literary and artistic movement known as Dada originated in the Swiss city of Zurich, at the time of the First World War, as a response to the War as well as the nationalism considered by many to have sparked the war. Inspired by Futurism, Cubism, Expressionism, Constructivism, and other innovative movements, Dadaism's output ranged from poetry, collage, and painting, to performance arts and sculptures (Jones, 2002; Hulsenbeck, 1988). The movement's aesthetic, characterized by contempt for nationalistic and materialistic attitudes, strongly influenced artists in major cities across the globe, such as Berlin, Paris, Cologne, Hanover, and New York, and all ended up creating their own separate groups. Surrealism led to Dadaism's degeneration.

Beginnings

Sickened by the nationalism that triggered WWI, Dadaists were constantly against the idea of authoritarianism, and all kinds of guiding ideologies or group leadership. Their main concern was revolting against the apparent middleclass…

Cornlius Ryan, one of the finest writers of the history of World War II, was born in Dublin in 192. He worked as a correspondent from 1941 to 1945 and covered stories of the battles in Europe for Reuters and the London Daily Telegraph and in the final months of the Pacific campaign.
The first book written, published in 1959, was The Longest Day, that sold four million copies in twenty -seven editions and later in 1962 a film was made on it. However, it is said that The Longest Day was originally published in 1959 and since then it ahs reprinted several times.

Furthermore, another book was published in 1966 The Last Battle, while in 1974, he finished his third book A Bridge Too Far, though at the same time he was undergoing treatment for cancer that killed him in 1976.

Moreover, he was the author was a native…

Ezra Pound's Meditatio
Meditatio

When I carefully consider the curious habits of Dogs

I am compelled to conclude

That man is the superior animal.

When I consider the curious habits of man

I confess, my friend, I am puzzled.

As one of the fathers of literary modernism, Ezra Pound reacted to classicism and romanticism and, in the poem, Meditatio, expresses the conflict between individual identity and the bestial nature of humankind. In fact, it is the social issue of what it means to be human that this poem epitomizes - what even the definition of human and human causality might be, and in particular, the nature of humanity when compared to one of the classic symbols of human unity -- canus familiarias, the dog.

There are several levels of conflict within this short poem. First, Pound tells us in the title that this is a "meditation." In other words, this…