Below is another of my GCSE coursework pieces. It explores the way in which different poets treat the theme of war.

Using a Selection of Poems from the Anthology, Discuss How the Various Poets Treated the Theme of War.

I have chosen 4 war poems to analyse, each from different wars. This will show how different wars were perceived by people at the time and the way different poets use to assess the wars. I am going to examine the poems in reverse chronological order. First I will look at As the Team’s Head-Brass by Edward Thomas during the First World War in the 20th century. Next I will study The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson from the 19th century written about the Crimean war. Then I will analyse Tommy’s Dead written by Sydney Dobell in the 19th century. Finally I’ll look at After Blenheim by Robert Southey. It was written in the 18th century about the Battle of Blenheim, although the poem wasn’t written till after the war. Then I will decide which of the four approaches to war I feel is the most effective.

As The Team’s Head-Brass is set in English countryside although the war was taking place in France and Belgium. The poet Edward Thomas was an English Soldier in the war and wrote the poem while he was home on leave. The poem is about a team of horses and a farmer ploughing his fields ready for the spring. However there is a deeper meaning to the poem. It is symbolising the war although it is hardly mentioned at all. Each year the farmer plants new crops, grows them, harvests them and then ploughs his fields. This, as well as the lovers, symbolises rebirth and shows that after the war new ones will replace all the people that were lost. Half way through the poem there is a dialogue where Thomas and the farmer discuss the war:

“In France they killed him. It was back in March,
The very night of the blizzard, too. Now if
He had stayed here we should have moved the tree.”

This shows the effects of the war on the people still in England. They need the men that have been lost in the war. It helps to show how destructive the war was on the English society.
The mood of Edward Thomas is reflected in the poem by the calm, sombre rhythm. Now that he is home from war he can see the effects that the war has caused. The style of the poem also reflects the mood. The poem is just one long section of writing. It has no rhyme, which makes it slow. The conversation in the middle of the poem also slows it down.
The Mood of the poem is gloomy and sad:

“Only two teams work on the farm this year.
One of my mates is dead.”

The way he says that one of his friends has died so casually in the conversation only emphasises the sadness that the war has created. To say that one of his friends has died seems so ordinary because of all of the death that has taken place during the war.
Edward Thomas knew what the war was like because he was an officer. He had seen first hand all of the death and suffering that had gone on. He doesn’t try to glorify the war:

“I could spare an arm. I shouldn’t want too lose
A leg. If I should lose my head, why, so,
I should want nothing more….”

Thomas knows that he may die in the war and that a lot of people do. However he knows that he needs to fight in the war to protect his friends and his country. He is very up-front about the possibility of losing a limb or his life. This shows the raw brutality of the war.
I feel this is the worst of the four poems that I have looked at. Although I like the concept of the poem I feel the lack of rhyme and rhythm hinders its appeal.

The Charge of the Light Brigade is a poem to memorialise the men that fought in the Crimean war. The poem is set at the battlefield as six hundred cavalry were ordered to charge into cannons of the opposing side. Although most of the men were killed this poem was written as a tribute to their effort and their loyalty.
This poem isn’t glorifying the war it is glorifying the men that fought in it. Tennyson says:

“Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!”

This demonstrates the heroicness of the soldiers. They knew most of them would be killed but they went forward anyway because they wanted to fight for their country.
The poem is structured into 6 verses. On the final line of each verse Tennyson says ‘the six hundred’. This is repetition. Repetition is used in all of the poems I am studying except As the Teams Head Brass. Repetition is uses to emphasise a point and anchor it, making it stick in your mind. Tennyson also uses a lot of repetition inside the verses:

“Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them”

This uses repetition to show just how many cannons there was. If Tennyson had just said ‘there are cannons surrounding them’ it would not have emphasised the point. Not only is the quote above repetition in the verse it is also repeated in another verse. Both in verse three and verse five it appears. This is just to underline the point even more. There were cannons surrounding them but still they charged.
Although in the poem Tennyson says someone had ordered them wrongly it doesn’t say whom; this is an example of implicit criticism.
This poem does have rhyme, which speeds it up and also creates a rhythm of battle.
From the poems I am studying this is the only one that is set at the battle. Tennyson however was not actually in the war; he got his information from a newspaper. Tennyson has the opinion that the war was bad but the people that fought in it were heroes.
I think this poem has too much repetition that makes it a little tiresome. I prefer the poems that aren’t set at the battle. However I think the message that the poem gives is correct, the men should be honoured.

Tommy’s Dead is an apocalyptic poem; everything is dying, the people, the animals and the land. The title, Tommy’s Dead, is blunt and direct. Tommy was what the soldiers were called in the war. So from the title we can assume that Dobell is talking about the whole of the British army. Ploughing is mention again, however in this poem it is used in a different way. It says:

“You may give over plough, boys,”

The fields will not be ploughed again which means there is no rebirth; there is no hope. Also with out the farmers ploughing no crops can be grown and people will starve.
The poem is very disordered. There are five verses, each of very considerably varying lengths. This makes the narrator seem breathless and muddled. From the dissimilarity of the verses, the disorder and what is being said I believe that the narrator of the poem is dying:

“’Tis time to go to sleep, boys,”

This means it is time for him to die. Everything is ending for him, as he is about to die. An extended interpretation from this could be that the British army is dying. Not necessarily that they are being defeated but their men are dying.
There is also the use of alliteration and personification incorporated. Rhyme is used to speed it up.
The most noticeable thing about this poem is the repetition of the word ‘Boys’. This word is contained at the end of every line except for in the third verse. The third verse does not have this pattern as it about the land rather than about the people. Dobell has chosen to use boys rather than men. I think is used to highlight that they are young and terrified although it could be seen as in friends and comrades.
I like this poem, although it is very desolate and sad. With so much repetition of the same word it could have been boring, but I think it just adds to the rhythm. Also I think the layout of the poem is a great way in which Dobell communicated the death of the narrator.

After Blenheim is a poem that illustrates the pointlessness of war. Written 94 years after the Battle of Blenheim at the war ground, it is the aftermath of war. It tells the story of an old man and his grandchildren. Old Kasper is sitting outside his cottage when his grandson Peterkin finds a skull. Old Kasper begins to tell the Peterkin and his sister about the Battle of Blenheim that once took place there. In each verse Old Kasper explains a violent scene of bloodshed and death:

“With fire and sword the country round…
And newborn baby died:”

The war caused devastation and hundreds of killings. Old Kasper has a casual attitude towards this claiming that ‘things like that must be’. His gruesome descriptions, followed by his casual sayings create an effect of irony. It is ironic that it was a great war but no one knows why.
This poem like the others I have looked has a theme of farming. Old Kasper is a farmer and finds a lot of skulls when he ploughs his fields. This again shows rebirth.
This poem is separated into 11 equal verses. Rhyme is used to speed up the poem.
Southey uses a skull, as it is the most unique part of the human body. This makes you recognise that the skull was once part of a human body that was ruthlessly killed, and again emphasises the pointlessness of war.
As in the other poems the poet uses repetition as at the end each verse he repeats the ironic saying:

“But ‘twas a famous victory.”

Old Kasper continuously repeats this sentence as this is all he knows about the war. Although it is constantly mentioned that it was a great victory this is not what the poem is saying. Southey is using this phase to emphasis that exact opposite, that it wasn’t a great victory. I think it is a very effective way of making his point
This is one of my favourite poems from the ones that I have studied. I feel the irony in this piece really gets the audience to understand how pointless the war was.

I feel that the best poem from these four is Tommy’s Dead. I like the way that Dobell has not only used language techniques such as repetition, personification and alliteration but also the layout of the poem to create a background for the poem. I think this is a great technique and very original.