The Great World War

In a war where over a million people died and fifteen-hundred died daily, there should be no surprise as to how big the impact of the first World War had on poets. This changed the way most people reacted to life. It also had some thinking doomsday was coming upon us. Those had to be some scary times. The poets of this time were called "war poets," and they had their different approaches to the world's conflict. They were also soldiers who wrote about their physical and mental experiences in the war. It really gives you a chance to see what a person in that state was really thinking. Rupert Brooke, one of the poets, was killed even before action by blood poison. It seemed he knew his time was near and wrote about how he already felt free.

"If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of foreign field That is forever England...."
(From The Solider)

This poem, entitled "The Soldier" was also read at his funeral. Not everyone was praised as a hero though. Siegfried Sassoon was a spoiled rich kid whose life was turned upside down by the war. He was injured while on duty and told them that he did not want to go back. He felt that the war became unnecessary and because of his comments people felt that he was not patriotic. I on the other hand am not the one to judge. who is to say how I would feel if i was thrown into a war I did not start and had to kill several people. I guess at a certain point he felt that the killing will never end and he illustrates this in "Everyone Sang."

My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away.......O, but Everyone
was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.

It seems like he is saying sure we are free this time but there will be another time where we will have to fight and then another and another. The fighting will not stop. i just found it amazing because Sassoon actually saved someones life and received a reward for it but to the public he is seen as non-patriotic. While Mr. Brooke who never even entered combat is considered a hero. I guess that shows you just how much power writings have on people.