Poem Analysis: War Sucks And Context Matters

~ War Sucks and Context Matters ~

SomeSaltyStupidity

Okay, responding to this wasn’t particularly high on my to-do list but hey, when have I ever not procrastinated via the internet? Guess that’s just who I am at this point in time - SomeSaltyStupidity. But anyway, let’s get right into this, kids! BurnyNette101, the original poster of this idiocy, argues that, “No matter what the events of the period of time, what cultural ideas, what expectations and behaviours of the contemporary population, the texts produced can be viewed and read as seperate to any of these issues or concerns.” This is the spine of their post, and my god am I gonna break that spine. How could any literary expressions ever have anything to do with expressing thoughts, ideas and problems experienced by the artist, writer or otherwise creator. I feel like I’m trying to teach calculus to a kindergartener here. I’m going to throw some poems, maybe a painting as some examples here. Fair warning, I’m going to be right proper salty for the rest of this.

War? War never changes

E. Housman: This poem shows how pressured into being ‘a man’ and fighting for their country was forced into the minds of many youth which had them signing up for the mass slaughtering that was the first world war, it tells of how they were too young, too naive to know better. It seems almost as though this song is something mourning the loss of not only many many lives, but the loss of youth. That in killing and watching your comrades be killed, you lose the wide-eyed naivety that you once had, that twinkle in one’s eye when the concept of protecting your loved ones and dying a hero of war would cause. The poem is short, with only two stanzas consisting of rather uniforme lines, the pace seems to change upon re-reading the poem as you put your own meaning and interpretation on the words. The poem plays on the empathy and plucks the heartstrings of the reader, saving the most impactful line until