Compare and Contrast the Writers' Attitudes to War and Contemporary Society.

Compare and contrast the writers’ attitudes to war and contemporary

society. Refer to writers’ effects of structure, language and form.

(The Soldier)

Compare and contrast the writers' attitudes to war and contemporary

society. Refer to writers' effects of structure, language and form.

During World War One, views on war were vastly different amongst the

population. The soldiers on the front line saw the world through

different eyes compared to the people at home. Some attitudes were

based on experience and pain, whilst others on the idea of patriotism

and blind belief.

'The Soldier' is a poem by Rupert Brooke, a soldier who eagerly served

in the First World War. It was written shortly before he died when he

was on active service. The poem creates a voice of divine and

unfaltering patriotism: "A body of England's, breathing English air."

Brooke adopt a natural positive attitude: "think only of me as this:

That there's some corner of a foreign field." This is a man who

accepts that his survival is not guaranteed and death in defending his

country would make him complete.

The language used reflects his feelings. He only ever uses one

negative word, "evil", and even this is used in the context of being

"shed away". It is almost an ode to England itself: "In that rich

earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore." The poem is

rich in image-evoking language: "her flowers to love, her ways to

roam."

The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet as it is divided into an octave and a

sestat. The break of thought allows the reader time to think about the

poets words and absorb them in. The writer moves from one scene he is

describing, England being a natural creation of beauty ("her flowers

to love, her lands to roam"), on to England being alive, personifying

England ("A pulse in the eternal mind"). Yet there is a continuing

presence of the importance and power of England, and this is shown by

the use of...