World War I The Overthrow of the Romantic Essay Example For Students

World War I: The Overthrow of the Romantic Essay World War I changed this perspective forever. World War I was no exception to this initial romanticism. The men heading off to war were written in glorious terms as patriotic heroes, the women were depicted as faithful handmaidens, fulfilling the needs of their men. The men who served were on the battlefield, living through the day-to-day horrors of the trenches. The women were kept behind the lines, assisting in the processes of war from helping with the building of munitions, to serving as nurses to the wounded, to staying behind to mourn the loss of loved ones. All of this was reflected initially in the writings of both men and women. The shift in perspective was slow to arrive but arrive it eventually did as a result of a growing new political movement sweeping through Britain. Thanks to the emergence of the suffrage movement, women were slowly getting acclimatized to a new role, one that pronounced their independence, and announced that they could say and feel and do as they chose and as they believed. If they knew the truth, they could for the first time reflect upon it and let the world see it from their perspective. As the growth of independent thought of the female perspective grew so too did that of the male develop as well. As each gender learned to express TTS true feelings within the context of the times the grim realities of the war experience could be revealed to the world. As each gender reflected on the war, men with the harsh truth of the experience and women with the ability to write as a faction that finally mattered (even with the limitations that gender placed upon them), each faction could effectively portray the Great War as it really was. The initial reactions of both genders to war were virtually identical war was viewed in the most romantic of senses, with no real connection to the pain and suffering that war invokes. War was romantic, altruistic, and it was heroic. As time passed, war could no longer be viewed with this pastoral naivety. It was ugly, it was brutal, and it was senseless. Reality set in for the boys in khaki and for the women who soon came to realize that many of their men might never return home. Young men suddenly learned that war was not what they had anticipated, and their writings started to reflect on the brutality and ugliness of their conditions. As their perceptions changed, so too did those of the women back home and this time their political independence and free thinking played a role as never before in expressing their heartfelt beliefs ND views of war. The women of Great Britain, already amidst the womens suffrage movement, were further reinforced in their independence, to living in a world in which they could say and feel and do. If they knew the truth, it was now time to reflect upon it and to let the world see it from their perspective. As each gender reflected on the war, the men with the grim reality of experience and the women with the ability to write as a faction that mattered even with the limitations that gender placed upon them, each faction could more effectively portray the Great War as it really was. The switch in perspective was slow to emerge but once it gained momentum it was hard to contain. Initially war was depicted in the usual romantic way. However, things were starting to change as shown in the poem The Dragon and the Undying by Siegfried Swanson. Initially it appears that this poem is Just another somewhat romantic vision of war but looking more closely we see something else. The enemy and perhaps war itself is portrayed as a fearsome dragon it Reaches with grappling coils from town to town;/He lusts to break the loveliness of Spenserian hurls their martyred music toppling down. In lines three to five we view this enraged east as powerful and widespread, destroying not only the defenses of the towns it conquers but seeking to destroy the hearts of the people through their religion, as referenced by the spires of the churches and the music of their martyrs. Through these lines we get the feeling that war destroys not only bodies but hope and faith and culture as well. War is not so romantic anymore! This theme of destruction continues throughout the next lines. At line seven, we become aware of the slain, homeless as the breeze, references perhaps to those who died on the battlefield, unburied and unblended as they passed from this world. Their faces are the fair, enshrouded night, implies that these men are young and fair, enshrouded possibly being another mention to the lack of last rites, they are enshrines and thus not prepared to enter heaven. Yet, they tenderly stoop towards earth, to hail the burning heavens they left unsung. This last line, while still dealing with those who have been slain by the dragon that is the enemy, is a reminder again of the youth of the slain, with so much left unsung, earthbound yet reaching towards heaven. Still somewhat romantic, this poem at least attempts to give a more gritty depiction of the horrors of AR, its destructive qualities, its effects on all aspects of life and perhaps notably afterlife as well. Poetry written by women feeling the early stages of the war seemed to be rather sentimental to say the least. This can be clearly demonstrated by Marina Allens lament The Wind on the Downs in which she writes as a woman left behind to mourn. This poem avoids any depiction of violence or horror but rather deals strictly with loss and denial: Because they tell me, dear, that you are adjudicates I can no longer see your face,/You have not died, it is not true, instantaneous seek adventure in mom other place. This poem acknowledges the war with only one word khaki. It is the tragic romance of the lost hero that is the source of inspiration, and it is from the perspective of the woman left behind, whose life is one of waiting for the soldier who will never return home. Allen treats us to a romantic stroll in which she is able demonstrate her feelings for her love, yet once again, denies the reader the modernity that identifies this war as a stepping point for British literature. Discuss the form and poetic qualities of "Easter Wings." EssayIt is the voice of the independent woman that is beginning to carry through the war, not Just the women left to mourn and ponder the heroism of their men, but those that made a success of it, through their patriotic spirit or independence. Suddenly he voices of women were heard, published in the daily papers and lifted up for being of use to the war effort. The above two female poets, rather traditional in their beliefs, reflect the growing movement of the voice of women, a voice that is neither romantic nor sentimental, but one that is reflective of their own personal viewpoints. It is impossible not to ignore the voices of the women who served on the fields of the war itself. Their voices begged to be heard. Eva Double was a British nurse who wrote the poem Pluck about one of her patients, a young man whose legs were smashed in the trenches. The reality of nursing during the war was horrible, with lice- infested, mud-crusted uniforms, bloody bandages, gaping shrapnel wounds, hideously infected fractures, mustard gas burns, frantic coughing and choking from phosgene inhalation, groans and shrieks of pain, trauma from exposure, fatigue, and emotional collapse. (Gavin, 43) However, despite these conditions, her pity for him resounds throughout the poem. He is A child so wasted and so white,/He told a lie to get his way. This is the voice of the woman who has followed the soldiers to war, and who has seen the horror of it firsthand. She sees clearly the child who So broke with pain, he shrinks in dread/. /And winds the clothes about his head/That none may see his heart-sick fear. /His shaking, strangled sobs you hear. Doubles voice is clear, seeing the boy behind the soldier, scared and shaking, a child who lied about his age to be a man and help to fight the war. She knows that in the end, Hell face us all, a soldier yet and her poem remarks on the contrast between the wounded boy and the pride of a soldier who while wounded is not broken. Here we have a female poet experiencing first hand the horrors of war, who knows that soldiers are Just youths, ho knows that war kills and maims. She is willing to share that opinion with the rest of the world through the strong and independent voice of her poetry. Slowly emerging through the voices of male poets in this period is the concept that war is brutal, ugly, horrific. Written as a preface to a never published book, Wilfred Owen said: My subject is war, and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity. (Williams, 3) He shows this perspective as he decries the hypocrisy of the romance of war in his poem, Disabled, as he describes a legless soldier, sent home from the war. Another boy who had asked to Join. He didnt have to beg;/Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years. Yet this boy is not in the hospital and does not have the kind nurse to care for him, instead he sits in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark. This soldiers story is one of a return home and of what awaits, and while it cries out for pity as a tragedy, it is also a limiting tale. It tells of the limits of the wounded soldier, not of his pride, but of his fall from wholeness, taking whatever pity they may dole. The young man who Joined the war to look a god in kilts. And maybe too, to please his Meg is now the tragic fugue. It closes with this same sense of helplessness: How cold and late it is! Why dont they come/And put him into bed? Why dont they come? Clearly, the romance of war is gone, replaced by the horrible aftereffects. According to Oscar Williams, war poetry is an unpopular and unread art form, as most people do not have the courage to face honestly the facts of others intense suffering. It is easier to have the attention diverted, the guilt of responsibility converted into a conviction that the suffering is Justified since it is in a noble cause. (Williams, 5) It is this initial reaction that the poetry of World War I displays, sing romantic and sentimental terms so as to inspire the people of Great Britain, rather than scare them with the vivid truth of life in the trenches. Where initially patriotism and the call to duty are treated with exuberance and romanticism by authors of both sexes, both men and women develop their own perspectives men reacting to the horrors of the front, and women responding to the tragedies of losing loved ones, going to work and facing the front alongside the men as they helped to treat the wounded and dying. World War I came as the womens suffrage movement was at its most violent and hose women who had once sung out for the vote used these same voices to call for their country and to support their government, which in turn resulted in a strong female voice throughout the war. These women can also see clearly that their voices are important amidst this battle and that they too can be of service to their country, either by recording vignettes of the war as they see it or by pushing the men to bear arms for their country. Each sex matters, each sex has a different perspective, and both of these perspectives are worth examining what truly is wonderful is that we can finally hear both factions. And as the voices emerged, there appeared to be a common chord in the song of war it was no longer the sentimental, it was no longer heroic.