1. Synthesis by Cody Roberts
WAR is HELL...
Synthesis by Cody Roberts
“Those who start wars never fight them- and those who
fight wars- never like them.” -Michael Franti

2. of World War I and the gross human cost of his war experience.
Englishman Wilfred Owen's 1917 poem Anthem for Doomed Youth laments the horrors
of World War I and the gross human cost of his war experience.
Owen's work is concurrent
thematically with the Disasters of War print series by Spanish Artist Francisco Goya, and the mid-20th century texas blues music of Sam “Lightnin'” Hopkins and his 1951 Kent Records side War News Blues.

3. “Anthem for Doomed Youth”
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
-Wilfred Owen, Sept.-Oct. 1917

4. Several prints from Francisco Goya's “Disasters of War” series, inspired by the Peninsular War

5. “War News Blues” By Houston's Lightnin' Hopkins 1951, Kent Records
You may turn your radio on soon in the morning, sad news every day
Yes, you know, I got a warning, trouble is on its way
Poor children running, crying, "Whoa, mama, mama, now what shall we do?"
"Yes" she said, "You had better pray, children, same thing is happening to mama too"
I'm gonna dig me a hole this morning, dig it deep down in the ground
I'm gonna dig me a hole this morning, dig it deep down in the ground
So if it should happen to drop a bomb around somewhere, I can't hear the echo when it sounds

6. Considering America is in a moment where many contemporaries, co-workers, friends and families are military veterans - it's important to understand the HUMAN cross-cultural and universal experience that many individuals deal with as both combatants and non-combatants during a time of war.

7. Wilfred Owen – “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” Fall 1917
English language poem, using a petrarchan sonnet form.
Composed in a military hospital during World War I-Owen was a shell-shocked veteran of the trench battles.
Use of dramatic irony: descriptions of soldiers' funeral rites are considered A mockery , and an illustration of nominal Christianity: THIS is an Anti-war protest with a deliberate use of the “anthem” ideal , and follows a tradition of the grotesque with its imagery.
Leading figure in the WWI-era “trench poetry” movement.
Visceral descriptions of harrowing realities of the first World War featuring heavy artillery, modern trench warfare, and the first chemical weapons.
Similar in theme to his other famous work, “Dulce et Decorum Est.”

8. Francisco Goya – “The Disasters of War,” 1810-1820
Spanish artist who helped make art personal and reflective of war atrocities, Goya is more well-known for his paintings. Inspired by the peninsular wars during napoleon's takeover of Spain- the french ambitions for Portugal (in order to cut off English trade) lead to the battles, during the Spanish wars for independence.
Composed after Goaya saw first-hand accounts of the horrors of war after witnessing suffering in Zaragosa.
According to the Universidad de Zaragosa's 1996 GoyaWeb, 82 prints were in the series. Preparatory brush and ink drawings were then etched with aquatint, dry point, and burin. 73 preserved prep. drawings remain today. Images are deliberately graphic, featuring torture, rape, murder, betrayal, and drawing-and-quartering.
Goya Influenced the impressionists and post-impressionists as well as what followed in his Gothic tradition of horror and the grotesque.

9. Sam “Lightnin'” Hopkins – “War News Blues,” 1951
Texas country blues musician following in the tradition of “blind lemon” Jefferson, folk ballads, gospel & spiritual music influenced by the east Texas plantation culture and realities of African-American injustice, and injustice as a whole. Integral architect of the U.S. Southern blues tradition, Hopkins is the most recorded country blues musician in history. American Blues famously explores daily human emotional and physical struggle and anguish.
Composed post-WWII and at the dawn of the Korean War, inspired by friends and family's experiences in the segregated U.S. Military (Govenar 2010), and the inherent military realities of soldiers returning home from service, namely Houston blues contemporary “Texas Johnny Boy” brown and to a lesser extent, Houston blues man Weldon “Juke Boy” Bonner and other African-Americans who Hopkins had daily contact with from Houston's inner-city neighborhoods .
Hopkins recorded the song with a rhythm guitar accompaniment, using an electric guitar in Kent studios, in the chords of a, e, and g. he plays an improvisational style on a 4-track recording.
Similar in theme to “Sad News from Korea” “Vietnam War” and “Please Settle in Vietnam,” two of Hopkins' other anti-war anthems.

10. Owen's piece “shocks and awes” the audience with
its graphic portrayal of the sights and sounds—and “unholy” aftermath that comes with war.
The mood is wrought with
a sensory trench warfare atmosphere, particularly the noises heard in battle and descriptions of a corpse-like “pallor” of the fallen boys.
I believe Owen is forwarding an anti-war agenda and is critical of the church also due to his language choice and use of imagery and irony. However, “Dulce et Decorum Est” is stronger and more visceral.
Below: a photo of Owen's actual brigade.

11. Goya's print series (one is
featured at right) is even more
impactful and horrific than his earlier
work, namely the famous politically-
fueled painting “The Third of May
1808,” which featured an unjust
and all-too familiar scene of a death
squad opening fire on innocents.
I believe Goya achieves his desire
to elicit a horrified response from
his audience, and underscore the
brutality of man and the dire human
cost of war.
Goya's work was, like
Owen's poem, born out of his own
experience. He uses the Gothic and
Grotesque traditions to illustrate in a
“daily comic strip” from hell singular acts of
brutality, ushering in to the mind of the viewer
tension, memory, trauma, violence, and the
animal instinct of humans during war time.

12. Hopkins' anti-war ballad is
a typical three verse, three chord
freestyle blues lament.
I believe Lightnin' captures the
reality of the depressing nature
of the externality of war, and also
the impact it has directly on
the family unit, and in particular,
women and children. The tone is
somber and introspective.
The modern inundation of cable
news television and the constant
“war news” and oftentimes lack
of objective war news, rings true
today. Lightnin' also is crooning
for veterans and those affected
in my own hometown, Houston.

13. SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE THREE WORKS INCLUDE:
Vehement anti-war rhetoric and depressed tone.
Descriptions of the human cost of war and war time for the combatant and non-combatant alike
All three artists have a modern, liberal humanist perspective in their implied admiration of human life and the desire for peace
Somber, “death is at our doorstep” mood and atmosphere
Implications of society's hypocrisy: via the breakdown of civilization and the family unit- accomplished visually in the print series by Goya, and discussed in the passages of implied lost love (“girl's faces” and funeral rites) in the Owen passage and also in the conversation between child and mother in Hopkins' song lyrics.

14. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE THREE WORKS INCLUDE:
All three were reproduced in different time periods and in different geographic locations: Owen in the early 20th century in war-torn England; Goya in early 19th century occupied Spain; and Hopkins in Houston, Texas, USA in the middle of the 20th century during racial segregation.
Descriptions of physical violence and horror is more overt in Goya, and to a lesser extent in Owen. Owen and Hopkins explore the peripheral effects- namely the mental anguish and agency of
memory.
The three works share different mediums:written poetry, two-dimensional visual art, and musical composition.
Hopkins' song uses low diction, while Owen's uses high diction, and Goya relies on the visual. The variance of the mediums leads to different emotional responses to the material..
Goya and Owen implicate the church and the nominal Christian hypocrisy that rears its head during wartime, as society mourns the loss of one while sending out another. Hopkins is not critical of the church in his piece.

15. SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE HUMAN CONDITION
Each piece reflects the artist's desire to question the motives behind war.
Each piece reflects the existential understanding of loss and death.
Each piece reflects the human desire to imitate life in order to elicit a reaction.
Each piece reflects the empathy of the liberal humanist who finds
compassion and understanding towards soldiers and the families and
friends of those impacted by wartime- hoping for an end in sight.
Each piece also reflects the psychological realities of “shell-shock” or the modern pathos of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Each piece reflects an artist's impulse to question governmental, societal,
And divine authority, as well as established order.
Each piece exhibits anger, frustration, and anguish.

16. Relating the themes of these texts in the workplace...
Understanding basic human artistic desires.
Realizing the unique voice of the individual.
Connections between people effected by common concerns.
Camaraderie and/or patriotic dissent during war time.
Understanding the psychological woes experienced by those exposed
to war, whether combatant or non-combatant in a modern context..
Generating empathy and compassion for returning and serving soldiers who may be in the workplace, or else family and friends of those in harm's way.
Compassion and patience and a respect for humanity and life.
All of these aforementioned qualities inherently exhibit the value of understanding the Humanities and applying human lessons at work and in cross-cultural work environs.

20. “I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.” -Helen Keller
“When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere” -Francois de la Rochefoucauld

21. Anthem for Doomed Youth. Retrieved from http://mural. uv
Cancela, Marisa. (1996). Disasters of War. Retrieved from the University of Zaragosa GoyaWeb:
Govenar, A. (2010). Lightnin’ Hopkins: His Life and Blues. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press.
Hacker, D. & Sommers, N. (2009). The Bedford Handbook. 8th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford.
Murfin, R. & Ray, S. (1998). The Bedford Glossary of Critical & Literary Terms. Boston, MA: Bedford.
Roberts, D. (1999). “Wilfred Owen.” The War Poetry Website: The First World War. From Saxon Books. Retrieved from
Google Images. Retrieved from