Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields”, Ernst Junger’s Storm of Steel, and Lewis Milestone’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” present different accounts of World War I. McCrae displays the sorrow of losing comrades while exhorting the public to continue to fight in memory of those who died. Junger writes a gripping account of his experience as a fearless young man in the war. “All Quiet on the Western Front” combines both the sorrow of McCrae’s poem with Junger’s fearless attitude to deliver a war story reminiscent of the personalities of the soldiers. All three works manipulate the use of syntax to evoke a sense of remorse as their audiences recognize the reality of death that manifests in war. McCrae employs syntax to display remorse through his stylization and organization
“Only the dead have seen the end of war.” This quote by renowned Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana immaculately encapsulates the core message that is conveyed in both the poems “Grass” and “At the Un-National Monument along the Canadian Border.” The two poems employ disparate writing styles and divergent methods to describe the atrocities of war and violence, however both poems do ultimately condemn these inexcusable acts. Furthermore, beyond denouncing war, both poems greatly emphasize a part of war that is often neglected; how we choose to remember wars and how we must not allow ourselves to forget these brutal lessons of the past. Carl Sandburg and William E. Stafford both lived through numerous periods of violence, epochs where
In lines one through five, the speaker of the poem explains to the readers on how life looked to him by stating “The new grass rising in the hills, the cows loitering in the morning chill, a dozen or more old browns hidden in the shadows of the cottonwoods beside the streambed.” By the speaker explaining how he saw nature
Through his use of natural imagery in All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque provides a powerful commentary on the senselessness of war and the tragedy of its impact on human lives. By highlighting the brutality and violence of war through the lens of natural imagery, Remarque underscores the devastating impact of war on human lives, and emphasizes the need for peace and reconciliation” (128).For example, Remarque often describes the natural world in vivid detail, emphasizing its beauty and tranquility. However, he also juxtaposes these descriptions with vivid depictions of the violence and horror of war, such as the sight of corpses littering the battlefield or the sound of bombs exploding in the distance. By creating this contrast, Remarque underscores the senselessness of war and the tragic waste of human life that it represents. Moreover, Remarque uses natural imagery to underscore the fragility and preciousness of life, and to emphasize the devastating impact of war on human existence.
He could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.
The poem starts with how the ballpark surrounding is sad with the Mudville 9 losing and in despair. However, as the story continues, excitement builds when Casey walks up to the bat. In the quote “Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt” the excitement is created by Thayer using the fans building up to the climax. With this image, you can tell that the baseball stands are loud and full of thousands of people. Thayer also has a creative way of describing objects in the field, like in the quote “And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air”.
This was extremely unfortunate and unnecessary for the 38th Welsh Division army as they went to fight for their country at a pure, young age and died because of it. By using an oxymoron, Sheers depicts the violence of mankind, as these ‘young’ soldiers were killed by mankind itself. This is a battle between the Germans and the 38th Welsh Division but in general, mankind versus mankind. Sheers illustrates that war has a long-lasting effect by applying plosive alliteration, ‘For years afterwards the farmers found them.” Including the long-lasting effects of war, the plosive alliteration highlights the aftermath of war ‘years afterwards,’ as war monuments arise from the Earth which brought back history.
The poet is reflecting to themself in a coming of age manner. The poet seemed to be away from their hometown for a while, and upon returning they may have realized aspects of their community in a more intellectual and spiritual way (post learning and evolving in this world), a way they have never noticed before. Upon returning home, the poet says, “I returned to a country battlefield where colored troops fought and died.” (Trethewey 21) The poet is utilizing learned knowledge to analyze something that once seemed to be so innocent and
War carries important morals that heighten the perspective of men and women on their nation, but it also entails many acts and experiences that leave lasting effects on their emotional and physical state. Throughout the following texts, Paul Baumer, the dead soldiers, and Kiowa’s comrades all sustain losses that compel them to persevere and fight harder. All Quiet on the Western Front, Poetry of the Lost Generation, and an excerpt from In the Field all connect to the recurring theme, horrors of war, that soldiers face everyday on the front line through the continuous battle. War involves gruesome battles, many of which lead to death, but these events forever affect the soldier’s mind and body. In All Quiet on the Western Front, men experience horrific sights, or horrors of war, through the depiction of the terrain, death, and the
The poem within the story describes how happy nature will be when man has destroyed himself, but the truth is that nature has been decimated by the war. The dog that comes in to die is lean and covered with sores. The rest of the city is "rubble and ashes. " Radiation hangs in the air. Yet nature lives on in a mechanical form.
At the beginning of the poem, Olds expresses his past ignorance by comparing dirt to “the background/ for the leading characters” in order to illustrate how little influence he believed dirt possessed (Olds, 2/3). However, in many cases, the backgrounds in movies or shows bring the picture together as it foreshadows future events and conveys certain emotions to the audience. Similarly, dirt also plays an important role, which Olds later connects to as if he had “loved only the stars/ and not the sky which gave them space” (Olds, 5/6). Olds illustrations and change of perspective allow the reader to view a wider picture of how people often belittle dirt without taking into consideration their dependency on
Hidden Narratives in History (Essay 1) History is often recollected through a selective narrative, emphasizing only certain aspects and perspectives. But given this selective history, what truths are concealed and who bears the consequences that arise from this suppression? While nature poetry is often attributed to being a channel for observing the wild beauty of the natural world, it can also serve as a space for re-examining history, both of the past and the present. Nature poets Lucille Clifton and Tommy Pico have strived to explore historical narratives that are often overlooked through their literary works. By analyzing the works of these poets, it is shown that nature poetry can prompt a re-examination of history; each poet evoking said
Mother Nature is responsible for many beauties that we enjoy and observe in awe in today. Whether that beauty may be found in an enchanted pasture that has an abundant amount of flowers or as simple as a tall tree, it is beautiful regardless. In “Fire on the Hills”, poet Robinson Jeffers offers a different perspective of beauty, not by embracing life, but destruction. Jeffers justifies this by saying that “Beauty is not always lovely”. To Jeffers, the image of a burned forest and death is a form of beauty in itself.
As if that war was a living thing and fed off of hatred and death. Peace and quiet, Stephen Crane finds a way with all this violence, war, and death to have nature in harmony. “It was surprising that Nature had gone tranquilly on with her golden process in the midst of so much devilment.” (56) With all this bloodshed, Nature goes on as if its not even happening. Because the beauty of nature is that, it goes on timeless and ageless.
Baylie Reisch Katherine Usik ENC 1102 3 February 2023 Text Analysis of the Themes within “How to Write a Poem in a Time of War” In “How to Write a Poem in a Time of War,” Joy Harjo shares a story about a community that is torn apart by the impending war. The story begins by setting the scene as the community realizes that the war has arrived; their worst fears have come true. The soldiers took whatever they wanted and destroyed the rest. Unfortunately, the poem seems to indicate that the people of the region never expected this to happen; there is sort of a state of oblivion in the scene (Harjo lines 25-27).
