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The Anti-War Literature of World War I

9 Pages 2362 Words January 2015

The views and feelings evident in the literature of and about World War One show an initial enthusiasm for war and optimism for what it could achieve. As conflict progressed, this developed to a strong anti-war sentiment by exposing the horrors faced by those who fought. This debunked the romantic myths provided by earlier literature in favour of the war. To a modern-day audience, the majority of literature that has remained within the public consciousness can be seen to be resolutely anti-war.
A piece of literature from the start of the war that is optimistic would be Brookes sonnet The Soldier. The first octave emphasises the patriotic brilliance and glory of there being some corner of a foreign field/That is for ever England. This is an example of imagery of heaven and the afterlife in the idea that foreign land where a soldier died is an extension of English territory. This would have been received well in the Christian-based society of the time. Patriotic allusions like this provide a glorified sentiment to the war and are evident throughout the poem, like the personification of England itself. The speaker describes himself as the dust whom England bore and refer to themselves as a body of England's, breathing English air. This personification suggests a maternal figure through its analogy of bearing children, showing soldiers patriotic pride merging into familial love. It can also be interpreted as a God-like figure as it alludes to qualities of omnipotence as England bore, shaped, made aware as well as benevolence through her flowers to love, her ways to roam, another allusion that would have been well-received in the Christian-based society of the time. The poem was published in the magazine New Numbers in January 1915 and with its patriotism and pre-war idealism, which reflected the public mood, the poem can be seen as propaganda. The idea of self-sacrifice is emphasised in the poems consistent use of the pronoun I. The speake...

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