English War Poetry - page 5
Keywords: With Detailed Reference to Any Four Poems from the Anthology You Have Studied, Explain the Way Different Poets Convey a Range of Aspects In war
By Riko V on 16/05/2007
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 5 of 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
poet does not appear fully convinced that this is a justifiable reason to kill him. He continues ‘Just so: my foe of course he was;’
This line makes it seem that again the poet is still not entirely convinced that his actions are entirely justified, he is trying to reassure himself ‘that’s clear enough’. The use of enjambment in this stanza contrasts with the previous two stanzas and symbolises his hesitation to be convinced by the motive for killing- his doubt that he should participate in the war.
In the fourth verse, the poet draws comparisons between himself and his enemy:
‘He thought he list, perhaps,
Off-hand like –just as I,’
The poet emphasises the fact that he and his enemies are interchangeable. He again raises the question as to why he is fighting in a war. The poet again has chosen to use many hyphens to make the poem appear fractured and uncomfortable to read. This suggests that the poet is uncomfortable fighting this war and is confused.
In the final verse the poet concludes that the war is ‘quaint’ and ‘curious’ arguing that:
‘You shoot a fellow down,
You’d treat if met where any bar is,
Or help to half-a-crown’.
He has failed to find reason or logic for the participation in the war. The regular rhyme and rhythm has returned and symbolises the persona trying to get back to the normalities of life and forget the atrocities that he has committed.
This poem is unlike ‘The Ode’ or ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ as it does not celebrate the lives of the men who fought in war but focuses on the dreadful futility of war and the mental consequences it can have. The poet is clearly affected by the fact that he killed another human and has great doubts about his place in the war. He wants to try and get the reader to realise that the man he killed was as normal as you or I and there is nothing glamorous in the way he died.
‘Come up from the Fields Father’ is set during the American Civil War. The persona in the poem, rather like in ‘The Drum’, ‘Drummer Hodge’ and ‘The Man he Killed, tries to emphasise the suffering caused by war. These effects of war are shown when the Mother and Father lose their only son when he dies fighting for the Yankee side in the American
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