It was a war that unleashed death, loss, and suffering on an unprecedented scale. The Great War started on June 28, , after a chain of events following the assassination of Francis Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria-Hungary, and his wife. Due to the vast network of alliances and treaties between European nations, nearly the entire continent and beyond was eventually involved in the war, leading many to question whether or not they truly belonged in a conflict that seemingly had nothing to do with them.
Britain, as a member of the Triple Entente, was one such case as they were obligated to follow into war as Germany declared war on their French allies. By default they went to war with the rest of the Central Powers. The Great War saw the advent of a new type of warfare known as Trench Warfare, that would result in the stagnation of the conflict and drag it out as both the Allies and Central powers fought from heavily fortified positions that neither side could seem to overcome, leading to unprecedented slaughter with little, and often nothing, being gained.
Germany lost the war due to a growing weariness of the conflict within its own population and the defeat of its key allies, as well as the arrival of the fresh American reinforcements on the western front ensuring that the allied forces would be able to carry on the fight for longer than Germany could afford. The sailors of the German Navy did not want to go back to see and began to mutiny. As a result, on November 9th, , the Kaiser escaped across German lines into the Netherlands.
On November 11th an armistice was signed and there was finally peace. The Poetry is in the pity. Trench songs were poems written by soldiers to alleviate the stress and fear that they encountered from the war. With these songs, soldiers were able to create bonds with one another. The soldiers sang these songs at their base camps, while marching, and during the front lines.
The tone of the songs, often times, were bitter with the use of obscene language. However, other times these songs would be humorous and witty; even being parodies of famous songs of the time. They used writing as an outlet for emotions which could not be honorably spoken.
Their songs and poems revolved around topics such as their desire to go home, their personal lack of support for the war, problems with superiors, and other general annoyances in the camp.
But the purpose of most trench songs was to foster and express the camaraderie among the soldiers as they fought and lived together under those conditions. These are some famous trench songs from the First World War:. Good-bye, Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square. Due to the absence of men on the home front, typically domestic British women occupied jobs that men usually did. Approximately two million women replaced men employment between Many jobs were in factories that required heavy physical work, creating a new image of the woman worker.
The seeds needed to replant for the new spring will come from the blood of those killed in the war. If it was drafted in , Owen would have been in the South of France working as a language tutor, well before he joined up and saw action. If so, he may have redrafted it at Craiglockhart in Owen wrote to his mother from France on 21 December , his anger and despair perhaps the sort of motivation behind the poem.
In a poem looking at the totality of destruction wreaked by modern warfare, he would not have been the only one for whom such allusions seemed appropriate.
The Revolt of Islam , canto 9 stanza 25 reads:. He wants them to recognise their common humanity. Keats celebrates autumn as the:. More on: Ode to Autumn by John Keats? Literary context Owen wrote to his mother from France on 21 December , his anger and despair perhaps the sort of motivation behind the poem.
Talk about rumours of wars and earthquakes in divers places… The beginning of the End must be ended, and the beginning of the middle of the end is now. Sassoon would eventually write some antiwar poems before being wounded in the head and removed from active duty in After surviving the war, he went on to a long career as a poet, novelist and lecturer. One notable admirer was President John F. Guillaume Apollinaire pictured with an iron circle to protect his head.
While most World War I versifiers dwelled on the misery and toil of life in the trenches, avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire often portrayed it as an intoxicating feast for the senses.
He survived the injury, but later became one of the millions to perish in the Spanish Flu epidemic of Vera Brittain in her nurse uniform.
Most of the best-known World War I poets fought for Allies, but there were also several talented writers who served with the Central Powers nations. Perhaps the most influential was August Stramm, a German officer who is now considered a pioneer in the Expressionist movement.
Stramm fought in dozens of battles across both the Eastern and Western fronts, and he captured the primal nature of warfare in short, staccato poems that often feature abstract imagery and one or two-word lines.
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