1. English Poetry II ( 영국 시 )

2. World War I (WWI), also known as the First World War, was a global war centered in Europe that began July 1914 and lasted until November 1918. More than 9 million fighters were killed: death was increased by technological advancements, deadlock and the reliance of ‘human wave’ attacks. It encouraged major political changes, like revolutions in many of the nations involved e.g. Russia.

3. The war included all the world's great economic powers, which were in two alliances: the Allies (Britain, France and the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances expanded as more nations entered the war: Italy, Japan and the USA joined the Allies, and the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria the Central Powers. More than 70 million military personnel, were used in the then-largest war in history.

4. Although a revival of imperialism was an underlying cause, the immediate trigger for war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. This set off a diplomatic crisis and international alliances formed over the previous decades were summoned. Within weeks, war started and the conflict soon spread around the world.

5. German forces attempted to march to Paris but were stopped by the French army. They settled in an area known as the Western Front, with a trench line that would change little until 1917. Most of the British war poets would have fought and lived in the ‘trenches.’

6. The War was especially noticeable for the use of new 20 th century technologies such as planes, poison gas, huge guns, bombs etc. whilst using 19 th century war tactics. This lead to the millions of deaths and casualties. No one had ever seen such horrors on such a wide- scale before. WWI left a profound and frightening impression upon the consciousness of Europe and her people, as well as the rest of the world.

7. Rupert Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915 ) was born in Warwickshire, England. He was educated at Rugby School and attended King’s College, Cambridge.

8. He was very popular at King’s and helped to start many literary societies. In 1911, he published his first collection of poems called Poems.

9. In 1912, Brooke suffered an emotional breakdown caused by the end of a relationship. To recover, Brooke travelled to Germany, the USA and Canada. In 1914, the war started and Brooke joined the Royal Navy and was sent to Gallipoli, in between Turkey and Greece.

10. In 1915, Brooke's most famous collection of poetry 1914 & Other Poems was published. As a war poet Brooke was very popular and well-loved in England.

11. However in April 1915, whilst sailing to Gallipoli, he was bitten by a mosquito and died from blood poisoning. Rupert Brooke never fought and did not witness any fighting. He is buried on the Greek island of Skyros.

12. This poem was written at the beginning of the First World War in 1914, the fifth poem in a series of sonnets. Brooke died a year after ‘The Soldier’ was published. ‘The Soldier’ was the final sonnet in Brooke’s ‘1914’ war sonnet series, dealing with the death and accomplishments of a soldier.

13. It is his most famous poem, expressing the idealism common throughout Europe as they enthusiastically marched towards battle in 1914. This sonnet incorporates the memoirs of a deceased soldier who declares his patriotism to England. He declares that his sacrifice/death in a foreign land will lead to an eternal England in the small portion of land upon which he died.

14. The first stanza establishes the situation. The first- person speaker requests that “If I should die, think only this of me:/ That there’s some corner of a foreign field/ That is for ever England” (1-3). The poem asks the reader to imagine that if this soldier dies in a foreign land and when his body decomposes in the earth, that part of the ground will forever represent England.

15. Brooke asserts that where his body is eventually buried, “a richer dust [will be] concealed” (4). The dust of his body is richer than the soil surrounding it because he was part of England. The poem then shifts focus from his death to more abstract ideas about himself and England. This shift in focus is called a ‘volta.’ He describes how the dust of his body and his mind was shaped by England (5).

16. Brooke then goes on to list the ‘uniquely English’ characteristics of the rural countryside that have helped to shape his mind and character. For example, the ‘English air,’ the flowers, rivers, roads, paths, and “suns of home.” (6-8) These idyllic images define what the narrator claims that England has given him and created inside of him.

17. In the second stanza, although the speaker is dead, death itself is absent. The speaker actually transcends death: “this heart, all evil shed away,/ A pulse in the eternal mind” (9-10) His sacrifice of dying in war will be remembered in the memories of all people in England. In his death, the narrator can return what England gave to him when he “gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given” (11). So he has returned England’s favour by sacrificing himself in its honour.

18. In the final lines of the sonnet the speaker continues to reference the idyllic life in England, and not speak about death. Her refers to England’s (her) sights and sounds, dreams happy as her day, laughter, gentleness and hearts at peace under an English heaven (12-14).

19. ‘The Soldier’ is less a war poem than a poem on sacrifice. The subject is war and the speaker is a soldier, but there is nothing in the poem that suggests warfare. Instead, the poem justifies the soldier’s sacrifice on a foreign field. This explanation has more to do with an idealized concept about himself and his country than the causes of war. There is no reference to the enemy or fighting, and only one direct reference to death.

20. The poem suggests that one should sacrifice oneself for their country, stressed by the constant use of “England” or “English”. This reflected the strong sense of nationalism widespread throughout the West in the early 20 th century. As traditional religious feelings lost their impact in society, for some nationalism became a new type of religion worthy of worship and commitment.

21. The strength of this nationalism could also reflect the imperialistic ambitions of Britain and other European nations. It is no accident that Brooke describes how an area of foreign land where an English soldier has died becomes part of England. This sounds like a repeat of colonial behaviour where there is no question that foreign lands can become English and the property of England.

22. Yet ‘The Soldier’ is not a true reflection of England, but the ideal of a pastoral England. This nostalgic vision excluded the present, in which factories and cities were normal. Thus Brooke’s poem is more a poem about nature and the transcendent values of nature in the English landscape. Brooke has more in common with Romantic poets than with modern war poets.

23. The poem is also about escape from industrialism and cities, but also from the frustrations of life. Brooke was not unique: Many people saw the war as a release from boring lives and societal obstacles. But after the destruction of the war, his idealism seemed naïve. But the search for meaning in life are recurring themes in human history. Perhaps ‘The Soldier’ is less a poem praising war and patriotism than it is a quest for personal identity.

24. Wilfred Owen (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was born in Shropshire, England. His family was working-class but his mother had strong ambitions for her son’s education. At 10, Owen wanted to be a poet and wrote poems.

25. He was educated at various educational institutions and passed the exams to attend the University of London. However, he was too poor to pay the fees and worked for a church instead. This job led to disillusionment with the Church of England.

26. In 1913, Owen lived in France in order to tutor English and French to students. In 1915, after the War started, he returned to England to enlist as an Officer in the Army.

27. He was sent to France and was wounded in battle 3 times. In 1917, he was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh. He was suffering from ‘shell- shock,’ nowadays called post- traumatic stress syndrome.

28. At the Craiglockhart War Hospital he met Siegfried Sassoon another soldier/poet. Sassoon was a pacifist and had been sent to the hospital to silence his anti-war views. They became close friends and Owen was greatly influenced by him.

29. In 1918, Owen was sent back to France to fight. In October 1918, he was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry. A week before the end of the war, Owen was shot and killed in battle. His parents received news of his death on Armistice Day (November 4 th ).

30. Rupert Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’ is often contrasted with Dulce Et Decorum Est because of its anti-war message and realistic tone. The poem was written in 1917, during World War I, and published in 1920. Owen's poem is known for its horrific images and condemnation of war.

31. The text presents a picture from the front lines of World War I. Specifically, of British soldiers being attacked with chlorine gas. During the chaos of the poison gas attack, a soldier cannot put his mask on. The poem describes the gruesome effects of the gas and concludes that, if one were to see the reality of war, one might not repeat deceitful clichés like “dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” or “How sweet and right it is to die for one's country.”

32. Lines 1-4: The poem begins with a description of a group of demoralized soldiers retreating from the front lines of the battlefield. They are described as looking like bent-over beggars, with shivering knees. They cough like old women and curse through the mud. They walk wearily back towards their soldiers’ camp.

33. Line 5-8: The men are so exhausted that they walk as thought they were “asleep” (5) and feel like they are “drunk with fatigue” (7). The speaker says that some soldiers have lost their boots, but they still limp on even though their feet are “blood-shod” (6) or bloody. The soldiers feel lame and blind by their tiredness and the dark. They are also deaf to the “hoots” or sounds of gas-shells (Five-Nines) dropping behind them.

34. Lines 9-12: Suddenly someone shouts “Gas! GAS!” and the men go into an “ecstasy of fumbling” or a mad rush to put on their masks or “clumsy helmets” before the deadly poison effects them. Everyone wears their helmet in time except one person. He is still shouting, staggering and struggling like a man who is on fire or in lime.

35. Lines 13-16: The narrator looks out from behind the glass of his protective mask into the “green sea” (14) that the gas has created around him. The dying soldier looks like he is drowning. The narrator notes that this image will haunt his dreams: the soldier dives near the narrator and he can only watch helplessly as the soldiers dies in agony through choking.

36. Lines 17-20: In the final part of the poem the narrator offers some bitter advice to readers about the nature of warfare and the outcome of blind patriotism. The memory prompts the narrator to address an anonymous “you” (17) in the poem. He describes how the soldier’s body was thrown into a wagon and how his eyes still wriggled in his face like a devil (19-20).

37. Lines 21-24: He describes the sound of the soldier’s body shaking and the frothing blood coming out of his lungs (21-22). He describes how this sight is as obscene as cancer, and bitter and indigestible like disgusting, incurable sores on the tongues of innocent people (23-4).

38. Lines 25-28: The narrator says that if you saw these horrific sights it would prevent any person from telling over-enthusiastic children who are desperate for glory, the shallow and simplistic notion that dying for one’s country is somehow noble and glorious. This is the old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori.

39. The major theme of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is associated with its Latin title, which is taken from the Roman poet Horace. The full phrase is dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, which can be translated “it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” Owen consciously undermines this noble statement of patriotism by showing the humiliation and grim reality of death in modern war.

40. In classical literature, especially in epic poetry great warriors who fall in battle while serving their nation are celebrated. But the men Owen describes are anything but noble. Instead of fighting in single combat, the soldiers are retreating. They are tired, both physically and psychologically. They are almost deaf to the sounds of the falling gas bombs that could take their lives at any moment.

41. Unlike the heroes of earlier wars, these soldiers do not face death by a recognizable enemy using sword or spear. Instead, death comes impersonally in the form of an insidious poison that kills in a brief moment of agony. These soldiers have no death-bed speeches like the heroes in Horace’s stories. Instead, they shout incoherently and gargling noises comes from their corrupted lungs like the corpse of the soldier in the poem.

42. Having grown up in England at the end of the 19 th century, Owen would have felt a sense of patriotism. But the graphic realities of the battlefield did not match the glorious descriptions of war prevalent in the literature Owen had read. The line “My friend”(25) is believed to be a reference to Jessie Pope, a journalist. She wrote glib pro-war, patriotic poetry to encourage men to join the war. She often used the idea of ‘glory’ to persuade men to fight.

43. But there was no ‘glory’ in dying from gas poisoning. Death by gassing is a metaphor for all death in modern warfare. The notion of a glorious death was simply a lie. “Dulce et Decorum Est” graphically depicts a central irony of death on the modern battlefield: No matter how noble the cause may be, the individual soldier can expect nothing but misery in combat and an dishonorable and humiliating death if he becomes a casualty in war.

44. "Anthem for Doomed Youth" by Wilfred Owen is a poem also about the horrors of war. The poem discusses the realities of death in war and how the soldiers will be treated after death. The second half of the poem is dedicated to the funeral rituals and suffering of the families deeply affected by World War I. The poem is also a comment on Owen's rejection of religion in 1915.

45. Lines 1-4. The poem begins by asking what “passing-bells” will ring when soliders die like animals or “cattle?”(1). Bells are traditionally rung at Christian funerals. But the only noises they hear are the terrible sounds from the guns and rifles (3). These noises are their only prayers or “orisons” (4) when they die in war.

46. Lines 5-8: The narrator notes that these soldiers will not receive prayers or bells (5). He says they will not hear a human choir, only the ‘choir’ of the crazy sounds from bombs and shells (6-7). But there will be the sounds of “bugles” (trumpets) from the “sad shires” (8), or the towns and cities of England, calling the dead soldiers.

47. Lines 9-11: The speaker asks again what candles will be lit and held to wish them a save passage to heaven. Candles are lit as part of a traditional Christian funeral. The speaker then says the true sign of mourning and burial rite will not be in the hands of boys, but in their tearful eyes instead, which will shine with good-byes.

48. Lines 12-14: The “pallor” or paleness of girl’s faces in mourning shall be the equivalent of a white sheet over a coffin. This is another traditional feature of Christian burial. Their lack of flowers will be replaced with people shutting the blinds on their windows to demonstrate respect and the patient, caring minds of their families.

49. In the Preface to his poems Wilfred Owen said “My subject is War, and the pity of war.” This “pity” is never more evident than in this poem. Owen had deep feelings and love for the soldiers with whom he fought beside. The poem asks what burial rites will be offered to the soldiers who die on the battlefields? It argues that, in place of a normal funeral, these men will receive a parody of funeral rites, enacted by the noise of guns, rifles, and “wailing shells.”

50. Since the soldier’s bodies will not be returned to England, the soldiers will receive more authentic funeral rites from the mourning and the enduring grief of their family and friends at home. The poem begins in a mood of bitterness and irony, but as the focus shifts from the battlefield to home, from the immediate setting of mechanized warfare to the distant calm of civilian life, the mood shifts toward poignant sadness and regret.

51. The poem draws a sharp, satiric contrast between the peaceful sounds associated with the formal English Christian burial rites and the “monstrous” and “demented” noises of modern warfare. The “anger” of the guns is the only “bell” for these dead soldiers, the fire of rifles is the only “orisons” (prayers) and the wail of shells the only choir music. However it mentions another “voice of mourning”: the bugles that call to them from “sad shires,” from the towns and villages of the English countryside.

52. This transitions us into the theme of the next stanza or sestet. The contrast is between the visible parts of the burial rites and the various signs of grief among the dead soldiers’ families at home. Tears shine in the eyes of boys instead of the flames of candles that they would carry during a burial service. The paleness on the brows of girls will represent the white pall over a casket and private sorrow, the “tenderness” of the mind and the “drawing-down of blinds” at dusk, will replace flowers in a church or on a grave.

53. By ending the poem with a striking image of domestic grieving, it moves from satire to elegy. The octave expressed bitterness that these soldiers would treated like cattle and given only a terrible parody of the rites owed to human beings. But the sestet expresses the realization that each dead soldier was an individual man, and each would be mourned for years by those who loved him. These emotions are more genuine and meaningful than the formal rites of burials and funerals.