Sacrifice as a Justification of War as portrayed in the war poems, Rupert Brooke’s “The Soldier” and Wilfred Owen’s “Anthem for the Doomed Youth”
War is decidedly one of the events that truly inflict a personal trauma to a human being. No one can be more directly affected by the horrors and fatalities of war but the soldiers in the battlefield. No one can be more physically, mentally and psychologically scarred than the men who march in the battlefield in the risk of ending up dead or suffering dreadful injuries. War heightens the seeming meaninglessness of human life at the face of heavy artillery and modern equipments of warfare. A single bomb or missile explosion results to the death of thousands in one snap. They die, so to speak, “as cattle” true to Wilfred Owen’s description in Anthem for Doomed Youth. All hopes and dreams perish by a single gunshot or a massive catastrophe. The effects of war had been nothing but dire, depressing and doomed for those who participate in the war and for everyone who had to witness such event. While extrinsic scars and wounds may be healed, there is no proper treatment or cure for the wounds in the heart and mind. Yet, many survive this ordeal despite with difficulty and despite being ruthlessly changed. Humans are coping beings and this is perhaps because their rationality allows them to channel all their grievances and sentiments in a manner that will provide therapeutic healing or at the very least, acceptance. Humans know how to move on with life because of this. The past is a period in life to learn from, not to die from. One of such channelling methods known to every participant and witness to war is through the writing of war poetry.
War poetry belongs to a categorization or genre in its own. They do not only reek with significant literary analyses but also, historical. War poems are primary sources and reports of a historical event, as directly seen in the eyes and felt in the senses of those who undergo through such experience. It does not only reveal the facts existent in a given historical event but it also portrays the emotional status of the person writing. All poetry attempt to come to terms with the highly dehumanizing experience such that war can brings.
In the case of the two poems mentioned in this paper, they are similar in their attempts to find reason and meaning in a cause that mass slaughters human beings. They attempt to restore the humanity and substance in every human life put at stake. It attempts to differentiate between the death of an animal to the death of a human being.
In Rupert Brooke’s The Soldier, the persona of the poem is aware that he may die in the war along with the thousands others who se lives will simply be whiffed off like candles. But the poetry attempt to at least immortalize the intentions, dreams and thoughts of this one poet. The poet would like to make a difference in what would seemingly be one insignificant death. Through the poetry he would like to recognize that his death will be for the good of all, which will thus bring greater gravity to his death. The fact that he will be offering it to England and to its freedom (and thus to the benefit to all its constituents) will mark him a true hero than just a mere soldier of war. This emphasizes not only the gallantry of every participant of war but also their inherent patriotism. In fact, the poem rationalizes war all for the sake of love for a nation, this being England. The poem would like the addressee to think not of his death, but to the greater good of an entire nation “If I should die, think only this of me:/That there’s some corner of a foreign field/That is for ever England…” In this way, the persona is assured and comforted that he will die not out of purpose but in fact he may just willingly do so for a cause that will benefit his countrymen. Thus the poem is overwhelmed with descriptions, praises and glorification of England rather of the self. The self will only be revealed in the end, but will only punctuate such selfless dedication to England: “And think, this heart, all evil shed away,/A pulse in the eternal mind, no less/Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;/Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;/And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,/In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.” Clearly, the persona is more than happy to give himself to the land he so loves. War is thus a celebration of his love for his nation rather what could be a meaningless end to his life.
Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth also similarly attempts to give meaning “for those who die as cattle…” Owen presents the facts saying how each man is silenced by “the monstrous anger of the guns” and “the stuttering rifles rapid rattle”. One shot can end everything in an instant. There will be no slow motion, no lamentation, no good-byes, no mourning. A single clap, blink and sound would already finish a human’s history. Clearly, the poetry presents the seeming senselessness of the fatalities of war. But Owen would like to give justice to these fallen soldiers such as what Brooke provided. This time, he humanizes the deaths by providing them a proper send-off to the after-life. He justifies thus by their eyes which “Shall shine the holy glimmer of good-byes.” And only the thoughts of their lady loves dear in their mind thus giving each soldier a happy and even peaceful death for dying with such a thought of beauty and grace. Owen presents the emotional and the true human aspects of a war which is portrayed by the human sensibilities of love and devotion. Because of one’s love and devotion for something and someone, death is no longer meaningless and insignificant.
This is what joins Brooke and Owen’s poetries together: the love and devotion towards an entity which brings purpose, significance, sense, meaning and reason to war. Brooke’s poem speaks of love for the nation while Owen’s poem speaks of love for the lady love: Both different in their objects but similar in their means, that which is the greatest love of all: sacrifice.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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