Brooke & Owen

Poems are an ancient art, probably humans' first literary form. They have contained many subjects, covering a broad spectrum from love to war. Since poems can quickly display raw emotion and vivid imagery, the form has become a popular choice for writers wishing to display their perspectives of war. Two poems of this subject are, Wilfred Owen's, 'Dulce et Decorum Est' and Rupert Brooke's, 'The Soldier.' While these poems both speak of war and patriotism, their views are vastly different.

Rupert Brooke, was a soldier and a poet. He was a British soldier who fought in World War I, where he was killed early in the war in 1915. His poem, 'The Soldier' speaks about if he dies. Brooke talks about a grave in a place away from England (most likely France) where the fighting of The Great War took place. That is where he will be buried, and it will be forever a shrine of England. He says, "In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; a dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware." That 'richer dust' is him, his body lying "concealed" in coffin in "that rich earth." He also talks about the pieces of England that are in him like, "English air, washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home." The line, "and think, this heart, all evi

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He was an officer in the British Army during World War I, which he entered in 1915. In this poem, Brooke views war as a chance to do something for his country. Owen in fact mocks one of the most well known epitaphs, "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. Their own thoughts and beliefs about war and patriotism are vastly different. Brooke died early in the war, while Owen made it to within a week of the Armistice. l shed away" talks about how the influxes of things like "English air" and "her flowers to love" made his heart pure and him a patriot. Even with two similar people using the same literary form, poetry can written about the same subject and have vastly different results.

Wilfred Owen, was also a soldier and a poet. Owen watches him through the panes of the mask, choking and dying. They are so weary, they do not even notice the gas shells that are exploding behind them. The view of the poem is that he is there to die for his country if that is what is needed, and that if he does it will make "some corner of a foreign field" a better place. It is not necessarily against patriotism; it is against the idea of sending men to their deaths instead of finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict. His attitude is not that losing his life will be a waste, it is the opposite.

It is not surprising Brooke and Owen chose poetry to express some of their most devout beliefs.

Approximate Word count = 804
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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