War Poetry

The SAGE Encyclopedia of War: Social Science Perspectives War Poetry

Contributors: Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi Edited by: Paul Joseph Book Title: The SAGE Encyclopedia of War: Social Science Perspectives Chapter Title: "War Poetry" Pub. Date: 2017 Access Date: May 6, 2017 Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc. City: Thousand Oaks, Print ISBN: 9781483359892 Online ISBN: 9781483359878 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483359878.n728 Print pages: 1837-1838 ©2017 SAGE Publications, Inc.. All Rights Reserved. This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.

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Across the globe throughout history, war has had an inhuman effect on the human condition, and the insensate destruction has apparently brought a hideous pattern of terror over time. Technological advancements, particularly in military technology, have developed more powerful ways to massacre millions of people and horrify a state or country. Throughout history, many writers have written on war without having a direct experience of it; however, world literatures have been filled with firsthand knowledge of war provided by “soldier-poets,” reflecting what war can do to the psyche and body. Indirect Experiences Homer’s Iliad, a classic war poem, dates to 800 BCE and recounts the progress of the Trojan War. Iliad is an important Greek war poem from the heroic tradition. There are many examples across the states, from older to recent civilizations, that tell both the barbarous results and glorious nature of war. Ancient war poetry and writing provided an account of ideal legendary warriors in order to establish the core heroic values of bravery and patriotism. Such heroic poetry had been supported and strengthened by different cultures and civilizations over time. To sacrifice one’s life and what is best for someone consequently became the intensely wanted attribute for which each soldier should fight. Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi, in his poem titled “Mother” (2014), writes: O Mother! Wipe your eyes as your son is alive Don’t think of death as poor mortals do Remember, you are not only a mother but a daughter too And we all are paying a debt to and we will do To our beautiful country who seeks life In the veins of your son and in our blood We live and die in Her arms, and are reborn in Her breast O Mother! Don’t think of life as wretched mortals do There is a life when we die for our land God embraces us and keeps us in his hands As we live only for our country Wipe your eyes as I will never die as poor mortals do. (Prologue: “Mother”) As advancements in military technology changed warfare over the centuries, the heroic ideals set by older poets started to lose their impetus. Following the modern invention of insensate destruction, it became difficult for war writers to speak of the legends with the same enthusiasm. Whereas the Middle Ages had its glorious tales of self-sacrifice and martyrdom, the spirited behavior of warring parties had dramatically altered by the 17th century. War writers have pointed out that the scientific invention of black powder, the first chemical explosive, not only changed the methods of warfare but also made it harder for war poets to

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The SAGE Encyclopedia of War: Social Science Perspectives

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speak about war with as much fervor, provided that the fighters were now being burst into pieces. As the methods of fighting wars changed, writers started including the consequences of war in their poetry and works. After the 1850s, even more destructive weapon systems became accessible for warring sides to exploit. The military technology of warfare surpassed medical advancements, resulting in millions of wounded war soldiers. Lord Alfred Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade is a narrative poem written in 1854 about the tragic charge of the Light Brigade of British cavalry toward Russian artillery at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War (1853–1856). Tennyson praises the Brigade, while mourning the apprehensive futility of the charge. However, Tennyson, as the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom then, depicted the entire event as a heroic act on the British side while balancing between brutality and nobility throughout. Historically, the episode was an example of recklessness and lack of vision, but Tennyson, who was far removed from the actual brutality of war, glorified it as a heroic act. Although this was what poets before the modern era used to do, this was not how all war writers wrote on war. Poets like Stephen Crane and Walt Whitman, for example, criticized vehemently the American Civil War (1861–1865). In the 20th century, it became obvious that armed conflicts, such as wars, border disputes, skirmishes, and others, were affecting the lives of the general population. Firsthand Experiences The First World War made many able-bodied men disabled. During World War I, it was expected that every young man would put on a uniform and fight for his country. Many soldier-poets were also forced to join the army. Some of the finest war poetry about the atrocities of war faced by real warriors in uniform came from English poets who fought and were wounded, some fatally, in the war. Soldiers such as Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, David Jones, Randall Jarrell, Louis Simpson, Edward Thomas, Michael Casey, Bruce Weigl, Yusef Komunyakaa, Brian Turner, and Ivor Gurney wrote about their firsthand experiences of war. The poetry created by these men recounts the mental and physical suffering of those who actually fought wars. For these poets, the brutalities of war, which included being subjected to sulfur mustard and trench warfare, were not an abstract principle or a political motivation for the nobler good; they were frightening daily occurrences, which these war writers converted into poetry. In one of his poems, titled “Dulce et Decorum Est,” a title taken from Horacian odes, Owen recounts his experience at the front; the opening lines draw a terrifying portrait of a soldier’s terrible situation. The prose writings written and published during the war period, such as the works of Sassoon, Graves, Blunden, and others, supplemented war poetry. The frightening experiences conveyed by the war poets helped to inform people about the hardship of war and increase their awareness of the futility of battle. The voice of the representative poets stated how all soldiers suffered during war. Like the British warrior poets, French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who died in the First World War, recounts his terrible experiences in “Calligrammes,” which was published posthumously in 1918. Similarly, Russian poet Nikolay Gumilyov, in his collection Kolchan (The Quiver), published in 1916, describes haunted war experiences of World War I. By the late 1930s, the Second World War was underway. The war poetry of World War II continued to sing war’s glooming experiences, but not many English war poets produced this poetry. This time, French poets, such as Louis Aragon, Pierre Seghers, Robert Desnos, and Paul Éluard, contributed significantly.

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American poet Karl Shapiro wrote his experiences in collections, including The Place of Love (1942); Person, Place, and Thing (1942); and the Pulitzer Prize–winning V-Letter and Other Poems (1944). Walt McDonald and W. D. Ehrhart recounted their experiences of Vietnam War during the 1960s in their poetry. Another American poet, John Balaban, served in Vietnam through the International Volunteer Services as a conscientious objector. His collection After the War (1974) describes how his life changed when he was wounded during the 1968 Tet Offensive. Another significant writer, Nigerian Chinua Achebe, wrote on the tragedy of the Nigerian Civil War in his intensely charged poetry. In Beware: Soul Brother and Other Poems (1971), he recounts the failure of Biafra to become an independent country. See alsoLanguage and Linguistic Nonviolence; Vietnam War; War, Culture of: The United States and World War II; War Correspondents; World War I; World War II Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483359878.n728 10.4135/9781483359878.n728 Further Readings Adams, R. J. Q. The Great War 1914–18: Essays on the Military, Political and Social History of the First World War. London: Macmillan, 1990. Baird, Jay W. Hitler’s War Poets: Literature and Politics in the Third Reich. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Baker, Kenneth, ed. The Faber Book of War Poetry. London: Faber and Faber, 1996. Bates, Scott, ed. Poems of War Resistance From 2300 B.C. to the Present. New York: Grossman, 1969. Boland, Eavan, ed. and trans. After Every War: Twentieth-Century Women Poets. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004. Dwivedi, Amitabh Vikram. “Prologue: Mother. ” I n Motherhood and War: International Perspectives, edited by Claire Phelan and Dana Cooper. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2014. McLoughlin, Kate. Authoring War: The Literary Representation of War From the “Iliad” to Iraq. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Quinn, Patrick, e d . British Poets of the Great War: Brooke, Rosenberg, Thomas: A Documentary Volume. Dictionary of Literary Biography 216. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Reilly, Catherine W. English Poetry of the Second World War: A Biobibliography. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1986. Rodman, Selden. “The Vision of Armies.” Introduction to War and the Poet: An Anthology of Poetry Expressing Man’s Attitude to War From Ancient Times to the Present, edited by Richard Eberhart and Selden Rodman. New York: Devin-Adair, 1945. Stallworthy, Jon. “Introduction to The Oxford Book of War Poetry.” New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. Winn, James Anderson. The Poetry of War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

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The SAGE Encyclopedia of War: Social Science Perspectives