Examine the contribution made by the War poets in
documenting the condition of the twentieth century.
The Trench Poets (The War Poets)
As the WWI breaks out, a great number of young people die in the trenches.
Most felt their duty to do so, they acted on an impulse, thinking it was an honourable thing to go and fight, even die for one’s country. War was glorified as a noble thing; it was the question of honour.
That was the usual way in which poetry was written. In poetry, war was usually depicted as an honourable, glorious affair. Thousands of young men left their homes with this conviction. However, those very few who survived the war, returned changed, wiser, more cynical, they experienced the horrors of the war first hand
Many turned to writing, became artists, trying to escape from the trauma of war. The name war poetry might be misleading somewhat, because it is actually the anti-war poetry, the poetry presented attack against the whole ideology of nobleness of war.
They are not modernists, in terms of form or language they use. They are modern. It is a kind of modern poetry. Naturalistic and painfully realistic, with shocking images and language, intending to show what the war really like, the war poetry showed the mud, the trenches, death, and sometimes even compassion for soldiers.
The overall massage through such poetry is that the war is brutal, vicious, meaningless, stupid and barbarous; there was nothing honourable, glorious, or decorous about the war. The daily experience of soldiers on the front was of mental disorders, nervous breakdown, caused by constant fear and pressure.
The Trench Poets question the very notion of war, heroism, patriotism, etc., they attacked the values of the pre war society in general..................................................................................................................
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