A.To the Lighthouse: p. 100*Carmichael
brings out poems—war revived interest in poetry
B.Motives for writers
and readersÉ
1.Celebration
2.Protest
3.Despair
4.Questioning
5.Consolation/Solace
6.Anger
7.Irony
8.Search for meaning
9.Persuasion
10.Release
11.Fame and fortune
II.History
A.As a result, both nations strove to out-build each other in terms of capital ships. With the launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906, the British
Empire expanded on its significant advantage over its German rivals.[21] The arms race between Britain and Germany
eventually extended to the rest of Europe, with all the major powers devoting
their industrial base to the production of the equipment and weapons necessary
for a pan-European conflict.[22] Between
1908 and 1913, the military spending of the European powers increased by
50 percent.[23]
B.The causes of World War I, which began in central Europe in July
1914, included many intertwined factors, such as the conflicts and hostility of
the four decades leading up to the war. Militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism played major roles in the conflict as
well.
B.It has been called
"the most popular poem" produced during that period.[1]Canadian physician and Lieutenant
ColonelJohn McCrae is popularly believed
to have written it on 3 May 1915 (see 1915
in poetry), after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant
Alexis Helmer, 22 years old, the day before.
C.The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders in the disturbed earth of the battlefields and cemeteries
where war casualties were buried[2] and thus
became a symbol of Remembrance
Day
D.The poem is part of
Remembrance Day ceremonies in the United Kingdom, where it holds as one of the
nation's best-loved, and is occasionally featured in Memorial Day ceremonies in the United States.
1.Memorial
Day is a United States federal holiday
observed on the last Monday of May (May 30 in 2011). Formerly known as Decoration
Day, it commemorates U.S. soldiers who died while in the military
service.[1]
2.Begun
as a ritual of remembrance and reconciliation after the Civil War, by the early
20th century, Memorial Day was an occasion for more general expressions of
memory, as ordinary people visited the graves of their deceased relatives,
whether they had served in the military or not. It also became a long weekend
increasingly devoted to shopping, family get-togethers, fireworks, trips to the
beach, and national media events such as the Indianapolis
500 (since 1911) and the Coca-Cola 600 (since 1960) auto
races.[3]
V.Rupert
Brooke
A.General
1.Enlisted 1914; died 1915
2.Looking for sacrifice and nobility and transcendance
3.[Songs of innocence—like the Chimney Sweeper,
transforming adversity with guardianship and religion and idealism and positive
attitude]
4.Went swimming naked with VW in the riverÉ
5.Sacrifice of youth
6.Little actual experience of battle
B.Peace
1.Thank God for war—cleansing and clarifying
2.Peace stinks—emptiness of love
3.War is place for release of shame—all its ills are trivial,
including death—since it creates an end; early end vs. world grown old
and cold and weary
4.Canker of peace
C.Safety
1.Safety is hid security is things undying—wind, night,
birds, clouds
2.Address to another person when leaving—their common
experience
3.Secretly armed; ready for death
4.This is an affirmation of the opposite—attempt to
vanquish fear in insisting on safety
D.The Dead (!)
1.Their deaths have given us the rich gifts of their futures
2.Holiness and Honour and Nobleness
E.The Dead
1.the beautiful changes of life in water
2.the dignity and stability of death
F.The Soldier
1.Eternal and extended England; love of the land; patria
2.Dead heart, all evil shed away
3.In English Heaven it gives back the thoughts of England
G.The Treasure
1.Mother with children again—hope that after death has
ended experience, he will revive it in a golden space
VI.Charles Sorley
A.To Germany
1.WeÕre no better than you; the blind fight the blind
2.Looking toward peace; knowing the absurdity of war;
3.Facing the thunder and storm and rain
4.Complete contradiction
B.Millions of mouthless
dead
1.Futility of grieving; the dead are honorless and deaf and
blind: it is easy to be dead
C.Route March
1.Marching song; Christ died and Barabbas; it doesnÕt mean
much
2.Like 1969 Woodstock: One two three what are fighting for
b)The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of
fatalities. Estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed
vary from less than one million[27] to more
than three million.[28] Some
200,000–300,000 Cambodians,
20,000–200,000Laotians,
and 58,220 U.S. servicemembers also died in the conflict.[A 2]
VII.Wilfred
Owen: 18-26
A.Arms and the boy
1.Virgil: Arma virumquem cano
2.Off rhyme
3.Contrast of pleasure and beauty with horror
4.Not god—youÕve got to be taught
B.Greater Love
1.The love of dead soldiers over that of lovers
C.Insensibility
1.The solution
2.Reversal at the end
3.Off rhyme
4.as it echoes the beatitudes of St. Matthew's Gospel
(Christ's sermon on the Mount). However, here Owen is stating that it is
blessed to have the very opposite of those qualities which Christ praised and
admired. Just as the good and bad aspects of life for the soldiers have been
distorted by the war, so too have these desirable qualities expressed in the
beatitudes been distorted within the context of war.
2.obscure section about what he had planned to do before
dying:
a)the wild
b)vitality in love and grief
c)to tell the horror of war
d)therefore none will break ranks
e)I would have provided comfort and wisdom
3.I am enemy you killed
J.Apologia
1.I saw God, glory not blood, glee, the joy of killing
2.Went beyond fear
3.Witnessed exultation—from foul faces
4.Made fellowships better than love—many contrasts
5.Perceived much beauty, music, peace—in horrors
6.Turnaround: these words cant convey that pleasure unless
youÕve been there
7.You should weep for them; you donÕt deserve to share their
joys
VIII.Robert
Bridges: 59-60
A.In 1914 when England
entered World War I, Bridges felt it was his duty as newly appointed poet
laureate to contribute to the war effort through his writing. His war poems
were collected in October and Other Poems, with Occasional Verses on
the War
(1920).
B.To the USA
1.Abstractions
C.Trafalgar square
1.Moves from despair to patriotic fervor—Nelson on
column, not Shakespeare—British heroes
2.He was noted for his inspirational leadership and having a
superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number
of decisive naval victories. He was wounded several times in combat, losing one
arm and the sight in one eye. Of his several victories, the most well known and
notable was the Battle
of Trafalgar in 1805, at the end of which he was shot and killed.
