Summary Of I Sing The Battle By Harry Kemp

World War One was one of the bloodiest, most gruesome time, resulting in over one hundred thousand military deaths. War is a atrocious thing that is not good for any reason. Harry Kemp was a poet during the pre-world war who wrote the poem “I Sing the Battle”. The poem describes the people who believe that the military soldiers going into the war and dieing is good, and the people who believe that the war is bad. Kemp is in a time in which America is going into the first World War. Atime in which most Americans are excited for this, wanting the soldiers to go in and, “... belch forth death at will” (Kemp). The line from the poem is a hyperbole. The people are wanting all the soldiers to go in and kill everyone with the, “...great clean guns” (Kemp). But it’s not just them who have guns. It’s also the enemies who have guns. The line is also a personification. Everyone imagines that the military is using the biggest most gargantuan gun that is able to just be pointed at someone and they die. Kemp though also sees the other side of the story. All of the families who lost loved ones.

The metaphor in the line is describing all of the soldiers bodies who lie cold on the ground in a war zone dripping blood like honey from a broken honeycomb. Those bodies are the loved ones that the people lost. The people that the Americans were so proud to see go into the war like bees going into a bird's nest. No matter if they sting the animal or try to fly away, they are destined to die. That’s the side of the story that Kemp wants to be seen. The bad side of the war. The side Kemp had to see when he was