Lécrivain dans son siècle.

DOSSIER LELE

Notion 1 : THE WRITER IN ITS TIME

Wilfred Owen was an english poet and soldier very famous in England and sometimes people think a lot of him as the most famous poet of the first war. His poems, often realistic, describes and denounces the horror and the brutality of the trench warfare. There was a gap between his point of view and the public opinion which idealized the war. [pic 1][pic 2]

Rupert Brooke was too a famous english poet. He has written lots of idealistic poems against the war and too during peacetime.

Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooke are both writing during the first war ( 1914-1918 ). [pic 3]

But what is a writer ?

A writer is a person who takes his time to down his thoughts on paper no matter his age, origin, ethical origins, langages or religions. He write to be published, be famous or maybe set an example and do not wait for other’s, do not only be a passive viewer. He can think also that the determination is essential when you want to have a result. [pic 4]

What is a war ?

A war is a conflict between several groups which are fighting for the liberty, their rights, their country, their way of thinking. Sometimes, various ideologies are  completely in opposition and the war is the result of the misunderstanding between humans.

Thus we may wonder about different ways to talk about the war.

ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH

By Wilfred Owen, 1916

[pic 5]

He denounces the horrible treatment that young dead soldiers receive when they die on the battlefields. «  Anthem for Doomed Youth » is about  the fact they will be no proper funerals for the dead young soldiers. Anthem, best known in the expression « The National Anthem », is an important religious song, a solemn song of celebration. « passing-bells »(l.1) announce the death of someone to the world and here, Wilfred denounces the fact the deaths are forgotten, there is no respect. « mockeries » (l.5) are ceremonies which are insults. Here, Wilfred seems to be suggesting that the Christian religion can have nothing to do with the deaths of so many thousands of men. « dusk » (l.14) has a symbolic significance here, linked to « drawing-down of blinds » (l.14) what is normally a preparation for night but here, the tradition of drawing the blinds in a room where a dead person lies is a mark of respect. The coming of night is like the drawing down of blinds. There are any kind of candles will be lit to help the soldiers to heaven, only the teary eyes of boys. There are too any kind of flowers will be at the soldier’s funeral, they will be replaced by the « tenderness of patient minds » (l.13). So, Wilfred give a negatif point of view of the war which use the men as weapons of fight, vulgar objects.

Contrary to Brooke’s poem, Owen’s is presenting another vision of the war, of the sacrifice by the gloomy, knows death and desillusioned.

THE SOLDIER

By Rupert Brooke, 1914

The poem takes the form of the sonnet, a form which as long been associated with English poetry, most famously with Wiliam Shakespeare. [pic 6]

The patriotic message of the poem is evident with the repeated mention « English » and « England », six times in all. So, although english soldiers may die quickly and horrifically ont the fields of France, the Eglish values giving their lives for a cause : courage, pride, will last forever. « think only this of me » is linked to the english values more strenghts that the death. « The Soldier » reflects the proud English spirit. Whichever « corner of a foreign field » (l.2) becomes his grave, it will also become « for ever England » (l.3) and Rupert seems say that England is his mother but more than an ordinary son, he can give his life to her.

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