Sassoon The Memorial Tablet Analysis

He shows how even the people risking their lives do not even care much for war and have become so numb to the horrors of their situation. The main character Fred Collins makes a journey through a death field risking his life for water that was then spilled by his comrades. While Fred was on his journey into the battle zone, “He wondered why he did not feel some keen agony of fear” and this is because he has become numbed to all the dead surrounding him. Meanwhile instead of being present in their state of being under attack, and put effort into their side of the war some of the men discuss “..the greatest questions of the national existence.” This showcases how even the men whose lives are at risk could care less about what is actually happening in the war around them.

The poem aims to glorify soldiers and certain aspects of war, it goes on to prove that in reality there really isn 't good vs bad on the battlefield, it 's just a man who "sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call, And only death can stop him now—he 's fighting for them all.", and this is our hidden meaning.

The soldier himself is frightened on why he could not save him which haunts him in his dreams as he says “In all my dreams/ before my helpless sight” is how every time he dreams he sees the soldier and he cannot control it causing him to think of it every night frightening him everyday. Soon he will feel that the dead person wants revenge for his death as the soldier states “he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning”, The dead soldier always comes into the narrator's dream wanting revenge as he chokes him as how he was being choked by the gas clouds and then drowning as how the dead soldier drowned in the green sea of chlorine gas. The horrors of war is what scares the soldier even after the war. At first soldiers imagine themselves as heroes creating them eager and excited they are until they finally get to the front and see no man's land. No man's land is usually bumpy with shell holes and dead trees that are either broken or burnt.

This elegy is ultimately written for all soldiers of war and sends the ironic message that the soilders who have fought against each other and could have killed each other are now all floating on the same coastline receiving equal treatment and being buried with their enemy. The theme of anonymity is extensively portrayed throughout this piece as Slessor constantly refers to ‘unknown’ soldiers or ‘someone’. Slessor uses personification and dehumanization to depict the loss of identity within each of the soldiers and the obscured effects of war to show the continuous movement forward of the world despite losses and victories. Personification is shown in the second stanza, 'Between the sob and clubbing of the gunfire '; the use of this technique ironically emphasises that the guns seem to mourn the loss more than humanity does. This leaves the audience feeling distraught and pity for the soldiers as it gives them a sense of the emotions linked to war.

Death is something that occurs often in a war due to the violence and dangerous areas. Everyone takes on the thought of someone dying in different ways, whether they maintained a close relationship with the person or not guilt could become an instant reaction of the persons' death because of a feeling of maybe being responsible for the death that occurred. The thought of maybe being responsible for one of the soldiers that you have spent day night serving with could leave an enormous amount of guilt in one person. When witnessing a death or anything traumatic it is easy to blame someone else or even yourself for the tragic accident. Multiple characters in the book The Things They Carried demonstrated the guilt and responsibility of another

It is the moaning of the world, it is the martyred creation, wild with anguish, filled with terror, and groaning.” (61) That quote describes how painful it was for the men to listen to innocent creature slowly die. The horses have done no bad deed, they just happened to be standing where the shots were fired and were hit instead of the enemy. This shows how war creates a loss of innocence, in multiple aspects. While the men were listening to the horses cry for hours, waiting to be put out of their misery, the men become depressed.

A masterpiece in its own right, it reflects a story that illustrates the brave and courageous acts of those who valiantly fought. The soldiers, regardless of which side they represent, pushed through their fear to become men of honor and valor. Many perished and those who survived are cursed to remember it. It reflects the sentiment that “Courage is more than charge; More than dying or suffering. The loss of love in silence or being gallant; It is temperament and, more, wisdom”

Basically everything in a war could look beautiful in humans eyes, but every soldier hates war at the same time. The truth reached by the reader from this contrast is that why some might like going to war and what makes soldiers to keep going in

He also sees this when Bostwick is killed by his own union side of the army while fighting with Watie's Men. This sympathy supports the author’s message by providing the idea there is a deep understanding between both sides and helping the reader understand how war is a tragedy because both sides suffer. This sympathy could also lead to a desire to unify the nation to end the suffering of both

Also, the author symbolizes heaven by using “amphibian empiries”. That shows the author is relaxed about the death and the soldier, or toad, is in a better place. The audience can also infer the author has PTSD from war. The last sentence says “in the wide and antique eyes which still appear to watch across the castrate lawn, the haggard daylight steer.” This imagery lets the audience see that the author is probably sitting and remember seeing all the accidents that happened in the war.

By analyzing this quote, we see the people who actually fight in the war, like Billy and the Americans, are in bad shape; while the dignify and strong ones, who want to fight, like the Englishmen, are held in prison. This is the opposite of what we think it should be like in a war. Here, we see Billy as an ill man, who has to fight, contradicts the English soldiers

The poem features a soldier, presumably Owen, speaking to fellow soldiers and the public regarding those atrocities. Correspondingly, drawing on the themes of innocent death and the barbaric practices of warfare, Owen expresses his remorse towards his fallen comrades and an antagonistic attitude towards the war effort through a solemn tone and specific stylistic devices. The poem is structured as free verse, contributing towards the disorganized and chaotic impression Owen experienced while witnessing these deaths firsthand, enabling the audience to understand the emotional circumstances of demise in the trenches as well. Throughout the poem, Owen routinely personifies the destructive weapons of war, characterizing them as the true instruments of death rather than the soldiers who stand behind them. Owen describes how, “Bullets chirped…Machine-guns chuckled…Gas hissed…”

he, in a subtle sarcasm, mocks society 's idealization of the harsh reality of war and its dismissal of the pain and torture experienced by the soldiers till their inevitable demise when he mentions that the wretched soldiers are thought to be "hankering for wreaths and tombs and hearses. " By virtue of a combination of the DEATH IS DEPARTURE and DEATH IS NIGHT conceptual metaphors, we read the linguistic expression "go west" as denoting the soldiers ' death. And via the DEATH IS GOING TO A FINAL DESTINATION metaphor, we visualize the "tombs" as the final destination to which their bodies are sent with "wreaths" in "hearses."

The pain that the soldier could get from guns could only last for a moment, but it also could be a pain that comes slowly, gradually and kills you with tough and suffer, which is an agony for mentally and physically, connecting to theme. “The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells” is from seventh line in first stanza. Owen also uses symbol to describe the scene of soldiers dying in the battle field by comparing with actual funeral in church with friends and families grieving his death. However, there are no beautiful calming voice choirs from the church in the battlefield to make the dead person rest in peace; no people to grieve, no funerals there. Instead, they here the sound of dull and big sound of shells attacking them.

The soldier was so desperate that he decided to take his own life so as to put an end to the suffering he was experiencing every day, both physically and mentally. The lines introduce life as bondage in many ways: the soldier 's soul is entrapped within his body, which, in turn, is imprisoned in the trenches. Just as a prisoner suffers because of his imprisonment, the soul metaphorically suffers as a result of being imprisoned within a container, the body. The expression "inescapable thrall" further suggests that the soul is not only physically bound; it is also enthralled, which additionally presents life in the trenches and the world of war as some sort of servitude. The only means to release the soul from that thrall is when the body dies,