In stanza five, the narrator sounds matter-of-fact while describing the soldier’s dead and decaying body, but also seemingly lacks pity as the narrator mocks the dead soldier. The narrator notes that the soldier’s girlfriend “…would weep to see to-day/ how on his skin the swart flies move;” and though another casualty in war is saddening, it is simply another casualty and nothing more. Douglas’ simple and unsentimental language emphasizes that war cannot be sugar-coated, it is bloody and
This imagery shows the effect of being shot in the head. We learn how the soldier looked and how he was so disturbed. Tim O'Brien's use of imagery made the story come to life and the reader is able to understand the significance of the horror of the
He uses this rhetorical device to inform his reader that there are many aspects of war that may have been known to exist individually, however, he emphasizes that the key to understanding all war stories is to first understand that each of the attributes listed, among many more, co-exist. He tells the reader that war in not simple, nor is there one word to describe it. By keeping his sentences and phrases succinct, O'Brien leaves little room for interpretation by the reader and therefore, more room for understanding of what he is truly attempting to emanate. Through variant diction such as "fun," "pity," and "terror," along with the lack of any superfluous components, O'Brien allows himself to not only keep his sentences small, but also delineate the differentiation among the many aspects of war. He uses simple diction to keep the reader from exerting too much focus on any one description because, again, his words are not meant to be examined individually, but rather as a whole.
For example, Owen says, “Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, / But someone still was yelling out and stumbling” (Owen 10-11). This description of the reality of warfare allows one to understand that war was a brutal and horrifying experience. Likewise, in “London” Blake
Overall, everytime O'Brien repeats something, often with differing tones, is symbolizing how in war ‘repetition itself [is] an act of poise, [a] balance between crazy and almost crazy” (O'Brien
No group fought together for long” (Ellison 5). In the preceding quote, the author’s use of visual structure demonstrates the informality and description of events. The event itself also describes the cruelty the narrator and the others endured. This shows the extent they were put through with clear, bold statements.
Throughout history, one of the most common occurrences during times of warfare is the death of the soldiers who are fighting for their country. Depending on one’s point of view, a soldier’s death at war could be honorable and glorified, or it can be a gruesome, anonymous demise. In the two poems, “Epitaph on a Solider” by Cyril Tourneur and “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” by Randal Jarrell, there is a stark contrast between the emotional impacts experienced by the reader. Through each author’s unique writing style, “Tourneur’s Epitaph on a Soldier” shows glory in a soldier’s death and is supportive of war, while Jarrell’s “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” gives a much more painful impression of war and the passing of those involved in it.
Conflict is a big theme and many poems and texts have been written on this topic, but two of the most well done and most expressive poems about this topics are “Out of the Blue” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade”. Even though the topic is the same the two authors, Simon Armitage and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, present the theme with different approaches, one about the innocent, one about the ones that chose to get involved In the conflict. The first poem, “Out of the blue”, is about the terrorist acts on 9/11 and the position that the ordinary people were putting in. The people that have been caught in the two towers were ordinary people going to their jobs and doing their daily routines and they were definitely not expecting what happened.
It then follows by a small description of the soldier and finally it ends on what they carried or what happened to then in the battle field. This quotation also shows that each soldiers carried different things. All these extra items they carried added weight to the overall pack. During war authors use structure in literature to protest
Literary Analysis The War Prayer was written by Mark Twain in the nineteenth century Imperialism. Twain uses satire to exploit the stupidity of war. In his prose, Twain explains the ghastliness of war and how people are praying to God for safety of their troops but they do not care if the opposing sides troops die. Twain uses satire in The War Prayer to make fun of the people praying for their side to win the war and the glorification of war. “It was a time of great and exalting excitement (Twain).”
In Richard Lovelace’s To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars, although the poem is written to say farewell to the mistress because the speaker is going to sacrifice himself and is going to war, it is playful and romantic. This poem mainly focuses on how romantic it is for someone to go fight in a war. In Alfred Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade, the one is set to be serious and respectful. The poem is about how soldiers who went into battle should be honored for their doing, and that war places soldiers under extreme stress and pressure.
Tennyson uses repetition, imagery, and tone to convey his feeling of pride of the Light Brigade. One literary device he uses is repetition. While on the battlefield, the Light Brigade faces a “cannon to the right of them, [a] cannon to the left of them, [and a] cannon in front of them.” Through this image of bombardment Tennyson reveals the men are surrounded by multiple powerful weapons and that there is little chance of them surviving.
Each poem in poetry set one and poetry set two has a different setting to express the main idea of the poem. In poetry set one, the setting of “To Lucasta, on Going to Wars” takes place at a home front, the poem does seem rooted in a specific historical setting while the second poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” took place in the Battle of Balaclava which occurred during the Crimean War. This was essentially a battle between Britain with its allies and Russia for control over the territory occupied by the crumbling Ottoman Empire. During this battle, the British commanders ordered a disastrous charge by the Light Brigade, which caused many casualties,
Both Ted Hughes and Wilfred Owen present war in their poems “Bayonet Charge” and “Exposure”, respectively, as terrifying experiences, repeatedly mentioning the honest pointlessness of the entire ordeal to enhance the futility of the soldiers' deaths. Hughes’ “Bayonet Charge” focuses on one person's emotional struggle with their actions, displaying the disorientating and dehumanising qualities of war. Owen’s “Exposure”, on the other hand, depicts the impacts of war on the protagonists' nation, displaying the monotonous and unending futility of the situation by depicting the fate of soldiers who perished from hypothermia, exposed to the horrific conditions of open trench warfare before dawn. The use of third-person singular pronouns in “Bayonet
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.