War Poems

Recruiting” E.A. Mackintosh

“Recruiting” shows that the reality of war is different to the propaganda recruitment, the poem contains bitter criticism of the politicians who sent the soldiers off to war and the journalists who write about it. The poem comments on the recruitment drive in Britain; taking issue in particular with posters encouraging young men to sign up to the army. Mackintosh focuses on the discrepancy between the image of war as presented by the advertising campaign of the “fat civilians” and the reality of war as experienced by the young “lads” called up to fight.

“Joining the Colours” Katherine Tynan Hinkson
The poem tells of a regiment of soldiers leaving Dublin to fight in France; written from a female perspective the poem juxtaposes (directly contrasts) images of the innocent naivety of the young soldiers with images of death. The poet speaks of the sad realization that the love felt for these men by the women left at home “cannot save” the soldiers from their uncertain futures and likely deaths.

“The Target” Ivor Gurney
“The Target” is told from the perspective of a soldier who agonises over a man he has killed. The soldier says that his mother lives in fear of his death, the speaker suggests that it might be better for his mother if he died so that she might at least find some peace in not having to worry about him anymore. The soldier then goes on to contemplate the situation of the soldier that he shot, and remembers that the man he shot is another mother’s son. The soldier feels that God gives no guidance and does not seem to care. The speaker wonders who “felt the bullet worst” – he questions whether it is better to be the soldier shot than the soldier who did the shooting and has to live with the guilt of taking another’s life. The poem ends in disillusionment calling the war a “bloody mess indeed”.


The Send-off” Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen’s poem, “The Send-Off” was written at Ripon where there was a huge army camp. The troops in the poem have just come from a sending-off ceremony of cheering crowds, bells, drums, and flowers given by strangers; the troops are now being packed into trains for an unknown destination. From the beginning of the poem the atmosphere is sinister, the lanes are “darkening” and claustrophobic, the crowds have gone and the troops are watched only by the “dull” and uninspiring faces of a porter and lowly tramp. The flowers pinned on the chests of the soldiers in celebration become for the speaker of the poem the funeral flowers garlanding the soldiers for the slaughter that awaits them in war. The departure of the soldiers for war is secret, it is “like wrongs hushed up”, the cheering celebration of the hours before becomes a smoke screen for the harsh solemnity of war.

“Spring Offensive” Wilfred Owen
In a letter dated 25th April 1917, Wilfred Owen recalls a day in which “we were rushed up into line. Twice in one day we went over the top, gaining both our objectives. Our “ “A” company led the attack and of course lost a certain number of men. I had some extraordinary escapes from shells and bullets”. Owen’s poem “Spring Offensive” is an account of the action, its prologue and aftermath and the men involved in it. The poem is composed of six stanzas; each describes a different phase of the attack – the scene, the pause before the attack, the tension, the attack, the casualties, and the survivors.

“The Bohemians” Ivor Gurney
A bohemian is someone who is unconventional, rebellious and does not conform.
The poem discusses the different people who join up to the army satirizing the punishments the soldiers received for not wearing the correct uniform. The individuality of the soldiers is erased. The soldiers who “burnished brasses, earned promotions” - the soldiers who conformed to the army rules were promoted. However as the poem progresses the speaker suggests that the soldiers no longer need to worry about conforming or not conforming as they eventually “died off one by one”: “In Artois or Picardy they lie – free of useless fashions” – ultimately conforming proved “useless”.

Lamentations Siegfried Sassoon
Sassoon’s poem, “Lamentations”, is a funeral song. The speaker of the poem describes the pain and anguish of a young soldier, who after having been told of the death of his brother, had to be removed to the guard room. The speaker hearing the pain of the grieved man entered into the guard room where the young soldier had broken down. A sergeant looks on puzzled and patiently at the man half-naked kneeling on the floor. The guard appears to lack compassion and understanding for the situation of the grieving man.
The poem establishes a contrast between the reality of war as experienced by the grieving soldier and the sergeant who has experienced no personal cost for the war. It is ambiguous as to whether the poem’s title refers to the pain of the young soldier or laments the lack of pity and understanding of the unfeeling guard. For the speaker of the poem, men like the sergeant have lost all “patriotic feeling” since they can no longer empathise with the pain and suffering of the grieving relatives. The soldier who has lost his brother is in such despair he would not be interested in fighting for a country which has effectively killed his brother.

“The Deserter” Winifred M. Letts
In the First World War many soldiers suffered from shell shock which was not generally recognized as a condition at the time. They ran off from the guns and were shot as deserters.
The speaker of Winifred M. Letts’s poem tells of the fate of a deserter, the deserter is not named – it could be any soldier. The story of the deserter is told sympathetically, imagining the fear felt by the soldier who ran off only to be caught and shot by his own army. The speaker tells of the deserter’s mother who thinks her son died a hero, serving his country in battle. The speaker suggests that it is best for the mother not to know that her son “lies in a deserter’s grave”.

“The Falling Leavcs” Margaret Postgate Cole
The actual falling leaves in this poem symbolise the falling solidiers who are dying in the battlefield. The poet uses what we call in poetry an extended metaphor. The leaves are the soldiers. The persona is riding a horse in the autumn time. She observes the leaves turning brown and falling from the trees and her mind is cast to the young men fighting and literally falling to their deaths at war.
The poem is written in one sentence as one long stanza consisting of twelve lines. This is because it is a single thought which has consumed her there and then.
Usually when leaves die in nature they are swept away by the wind, but these leaves are falling like snowflakes from the trees on a ‘still afternoon’ and the speaker finds it odd. This prompts her to consider how the soldiers die ‘slain by no wind or age or pestilence’.

“In Flanders Fields” John McCraye
Sickened by what he had seen during the Boer War, John McCrae nevertheless signed up in August 1914, and headed for France with his horse, Bonfire, in tow. He would have found few opportunities for riding in that hell on earth. Knee deep in mud and freezing water, men's feet rotted where they stood, waiting for the next attack of gas to insinuate its way down the trenches, or the signal to go "over the top", often into direct machine gun fire.
McCrae wrote "In Flanders Fields" the day after presiding at the funeral of a friend and former student. McCrae was to number among the 9,000,000 fatalities that the war would claim.
Poppy seed will lie in the ground for years if the soil is undisturbed. That churned up cemetery known as the Western Front provided the ideal medium for masses of poppies to blanket the graves. By the 1920s, Legion Branches were selling the paper flowers to: provide assistance to needy ex-servicemen and their families, to build housing for seniors, and support programmes like meals-on-wheels, drop-in centres, etc. Buy and wear a poppy. It is simple, painless way to recognize contributions and sacrifices barely imaginable to us.
Like ‘The Falling Leaves’, the poem relies heavily on visual imagery.

“The Seed-Merchant’s Son” Agnes Grozier Herbertson
The poet chose to make the subject of her poem the son of someone who grows and sells seeds. Herbertson probably chose this occupation because seeds signify new life and the possibility of growth and renewal. The poem gives many facts about the young soldier who died, this emphasizes the youthfulness of the boy – his “bright, bright eyes” and “cheeks all red”; he is “fair and healthy and long of limb”. The seed merchant is described as being old to have such a young son. The poet sympathises with the man and the fact that his family line will now and with him and unlike the seeds will not be renewed. The speaker questions what we can say to a man in his situation. The answer to her question comes from her observations of the seed-merchant himself as she observes him looking at the seeds in his hand and the realization that life will go on. The seed-merchant manages to keep his faith in God as he thanks God – he thought that life was over but realizes it is not when he looks at the seed.

“The Parable of the Old Man and the Young” Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen chooses to base his poem on the biblical story of Abraham and his son Isaac. In the bible when Abraham has demonstrated his obedience, God sends a ram for Abraham to sacrifice rather than his son. The bible story is meant to emphasise the mercy of God. Abraham is considered the father of the Jewish people and also is important in Islam. The story parallels God’s later sacrifice of his own son Jesus Christ, to redeem the sins of the world.
Owen reworks the traditional parable setting his story in the trenches of World War One rather than in the Holy Land. Owen’s poem is a sinister reworking of the parable in which Abraham becomes representative of the British government and instead of sacrificing the Ram of Pride chooses to slay his son and “half the seed of Europe”. The failure of the Angel to persuade Abraham to slay the Ram suggests that the war could have been prevented had proper negotiations taken place. The speaker of the poem feels that the government have gone against the teachings of God.

“Spring in War-Time” Edith Nesbitt
The female speaker of the poem addresses a lost lover, she laments the passing of the seasons and the fact that she shall no longer walks down “lover’s lane” with her beau. Spring, which holds connotations of new life, only serves to remind the speaker of the poem of what she has lost and will not experience. She remembers the previous spring when she and her lover were, like the birds, ready to build a nest (home). The comparison of the lovers to the nesting birds emphasizes the lost opportunities of the women left behind. “Lover’s lane” named so because it was often frequented by lovers is evocative of the marital tradition of showering newly weds in confetti as the blossoming flowers scatter their petals on the road.

“Perhaps –“ Vera Brittain
Written in five quatrains the speaker reflects on the beauty of nature around her which she can no longer appreciate. The speaker uses nature to demonstrate the passing of time and her feelings of grief for her lost lover.
The speaker questions whether she will ever be able to appreciate the beauty of nature again after experiencing such loss. The poem is both personal and universal in its address, the capitalization of “Yon” is both the speaker’s named lover and the name of any loved one lost in the war.
The ending is poignant and optimistic at the same time and reflects the British fashion of resilience common during the period. Time is a healer and life does go on. Nature aids the process of grief as it a constant phenomenon and continues to live on and provide familiar structure for those coping with loss.
Five quatrains are used with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef ghgh ijij. This reflects the monotony of the seasons and the steady rhythm of change.
The poem would have been appreciated by many young women at the time since such a vast number of men died during the war, and as a consequence the birth rate dropped significantly and many women lived their lives as spinsters or widows.


‘Reported Missing’ by Anna Gordon Keown
This is a Shakespearian sonnet since it has the structure of abba cddc effe gg. Sonnets were traditionally about love. It is ambiguous as to whether the speaker in this poem is the soldier’s mother or lover. It is moving because the speaker is in denial and will soon have to accept the death of the missing soldier. The poem can be divided into two sections – the first 12 lines express anger at the manner in which others so readily assume that the soldier is dead, the final rhyming lines express her certainty that he will he is not dead and will come again. The final lines are poignant as the reader realizes that one day the speaker will have to accept that the soldier is not returning to her.