Paper 110: History of English Literature - From 1900 to 2000

 Paper No: 110 History of English Literature - From 1900 to 2000

This blog is part of assignment of Paper: 110 History of English Literature - From 1900 to 2000

Topic:  War Poetry 

Table of Contents: 

Personal Information

Assignment Details

Abstract 

Keywords

Introduction 

Features of War Poetry 

About Poets 

Conclusion

Personal Information: -

Name: - Manasi Joshi

Batch: - M.A. Sem 2 (2024-2026)

E-mail Address: -mansijoshi202@gmail.com

Roll Number: - 15

Assignment Details: -

Topic: Abhinavagupta - The Literary Critic and Commentator

Paper & subject code: - 110 History of English Literature - From 1900 to 2000

Submitted to: - Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar

Date of Submission: - April 17,2025

Abstract:

War poetry is a literary genre that reflects the realities, horrors, and emotional consequences of war. Emerging prominently during World War I, war poets such as Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Rupert Brooke captured both the brutality of the battlefield and the inner turmoil of soldiers. These poems often express themes of patriotism, trauma, death, loss, and disillusionment. While earlier war poetry glorified heroism, modern war poetry tends to highlight the futility and suffering caused by war. Through vivid imagery, personal experience, and emotional depth, war poetry offers a powerful commentary on the human cost of conflict and the psychological scars left behind.

Keywords

War, Poetry, Patriotism, Trauma, Death, Loss, Disillusionment, Conflict, Soldier’s experience, Anti-war, Heroism, Suffering, Memory, World War I, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke, Realism, Futility of war, psychological impact

Introduction

War poetry is a powerful form of literature that captures the emotional, physical, and psychological experiences of war. It often reflects the thoughts, fears, hopes, and sufferings of soldiers and civilians who are affected by the violence and destruction of conflict. War poems do not just describe battles—they also question the purpose of war, highlight its horrors, and sometimes express patriotism or protest. From the ancient epics like Homer’s Iliad to the heartbreaking verses of World War I poets such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, war poetry has always served as a voice for those who experience war firsthand. Through vivid imagery and emotional language, war poetry brings readers closer to the real human cost of war.

Features of War Poetry 

Provided details of life in the trenches

Often questioned the need for war, combining it with anti-war arguments

The individual located within a company of fellow-sufferers

Did not romanticize or sentimentalize war

A universal humanism

Injury - mental and physical - is a central theme.

About Poets 

The poetry of the First World War offers a searing critique of the trauma and disillusionment faced by soldiers in the trenches, often challenging the patriotic narratives promoted by political and religious authorities. Among the most notable voices is Siegfried Sassoon, whose work is marked by vivid imagery, bitter irony, and an unflinching representation of war’s brutal realities.

Sassoon, along with his contemporaries—Wilfred Owen, Edmund Blunden, Rupert Brooke, Edward Thomas, Isaac Rosenberg, and others—wrote in response to the horrific experiences of trench warfare, physical mutilation, and psychological trauma. While poets like Brooke initially approached the war with romantic idealism, Sassoon’s later poetry sharply diverges in tone, emphasizing the grotesque and dehumanizing aspects of modern combat. His poetry reveals the disillusionment of a generation that experienced the futility and devastation of mechanized warfare firsthand.

An excerpt from Counter-Attack exemplifies this grotesque realism. The description of the battlefield—“green clumsy legs,” “naked sodden buttocks,” and “clotted heads slept in the plastering slime”—evokes a landscape saturated with decaying corpses, effectively stripping away any lingering notions of heroism or glory. The sensory overload—particularly the visual and tactile imagery of “sucking mud” and “plastering slime”—immerses the reader in the physical and psychological horror of war. The grim irony of the line “And then the rain began, the jolly old rain!” provides a jarring contrast between the mundane and the macabre, suggesting a world turned upside down by violence and suffering.

In addition to such graphic realism, Sassoon employs biting satire to critique the institutions that glorify war. In They, Sassoon confronts the hypocrisy of the Church through the figure of a Bishop who patronizingly praises the soldiers’ sacrifice. The Bishop’s statement— “They will not be the same; for they’ll have fought / In a just cause…”—reflects a sanitized and moralized interpretation of war, which starkly contrasts with the physical and emotional scars borne by the returning soldiers. The reference to “Anti-Christ” and “comrades’ blood” implies a distorted religious justification for mass violence, exposing how language can be used to legitimize suffering in the name of a noble cause.

Sassoon’s poetry, therefore, oscillates between direct confrontation with the physical horrors of war and a more indirect, satirical critique of the ideological frameworks that support it. His friendship and collaboration with other soldier-poets, particularly Wilfred Owen and Edmund Blunden, further shaped his poetic voice, which combines testimonial authenticity with literary artistry. Together, these poets redefined war poetry by foregrounding the soldier’s perspective and challenging dominant narratives of duty, patriotism, and sacrifice.

Sassoon’s contribution to First World War poetry is characterized by his vivid representation of death and dismemberment, his satirical engagement with institutional authority, and his insistence on truthfully conveying the soldier’s experience. His work remains a powerful testament to the psychological and physical toll of war and continues to resonate as a critique of how societies memorialize and mythologize conflict.

The perspectives of Siegfried Sassoon and Edmund Blunden on war reveal deeply personal and emotionally charged responses, yet they diverge in tone and focus. Sassoon’s poetry and prose articulate a vehement critique of war, emphasizing the physical and psychological injuries endured by soldiers. He is largely indifferent to the political motivations of war, instead foregrounding its brutal consequences. In his poem Survivors, Sassoon presents soldiers as living in “cowed / subjection to the ghosts of friends who die,” conveying their psychological trauma and moral disillusionment. His Diaries also underscore this view, denouncing war as a source of “useless suffering” and expressing disbelief at the enthusiasm of civilians—particularly women—who romanticize the violence committed against enemy soldiers. Sassoon’s writings, therefore, represent a sustained rejection of the ideals of glory, heroism, and patriotic fervor that typically accompany narratives of war.

By contrast, Edmund Blunden offers a more subdued, yet equally profound, meditation on the costs of war. In Undertones of War (1928), his memoir and poetic reflections reveal a deep sense of mourning and disillusionment, though expressed with greater emotional restraint than Sassoon or Owen. Blunden’s poetry often laments the death of comrades and the lasting trauma of survival. In 1916 Seen from 1921, he writes:

“Dead as the men I loved, wait while life drags / Its wounded length from those sad streets of war,”

evoking the enduring grief and psychological toll borne by survivors.

Notably, Blunden distinguishes himself among war poets through his consistent attention to the devastation of the natural environment. His work documents the degradation of landscapes—withered trees and desolate fields—caused by industrial warfare, highlighting a broader ecological loss alongside human suffering. This concern for the natural world sets him apart from his contemporaries, adding an additional layer of loss to his poetic testimony.

While, both Sassoon and Blunden share a profound disillusionment with the war, Sassoon's writings are marked by bitter denunciation and rejection of traditional war values, whereas Blunden’s are characterized by elegiac restraint and a unique ecological consciousness.

Wilfred Owen remains the most renowned and widely anthologized of the British war poets, primarily for his uncompromising representation of the brutal realities of the First World War. His often-quoted dictum—“My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity”—succinctly encapsulates the ethical and aesthetic thrust of his poetic project. The "pity" Owen refers to arises from the mass suffering and senseless deaths of young soldiers, suggesting a moral stance that sees no political or national cause as sufficient justification for the large-scale annihilation of human life.

In Anthem for Doomed Youth, arguably his most celebrated poem, Owen dismantles the traditional rhetoric of military valor and memorialization. The poem opens with the haunting rhetorical question, “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” equating the soldiers’ deaths to the mass slaughter of animals. Here, Owen juxtaposes religious rituals of mourning with the mechanical and dehumanizing sounds of warfare—“Only the monstrous anger of the guns”—thereby critiquing the absence of dignity in the soldiers’ deaths. The cacophony of “stuttering rifles” and “wailing shells” replaces conventional mourning rites, emphasizing the inhumanity of modern warfare.

In Strange Meeting, the speaker encounters the ghost of an enemy soldier in a surreal, posthumous setting. The dead soldier reveals that he too once harbored dreams and aspirations, thus undermining the constructed dichotomy of “us” versus “them.” Owen's narrative here challenges the very premise of enmity in war, implying a shared humanity that transcends national allegiances.

Disabled, another of Owen’s significant compositions, portrays a young soldier who has returned from the front grievously wounded, having lost both his legs and an arm. Through a stark contrast between past and present, Owen charts the protagonist’s transition from vibrant youth to forgotten war casualty. The young man's memories of athletic achievement and social admiration—“He’d always been a lucky lad”—are set against his present isolation, embodied in the women’s repulsion as they now regard him “like some queer disease.” The bitterness of his condition is further emphasized by the institutionalized pity he must now endure: “And do what things the rules consider wise, / And take whatever pity they may dole.” The poem culminates in a tone of abandonment and helplessness, asking “Why don’t they come / And put him into bed?”

Owen's poetic landscape is thus populated not by heroes but by the wounded, the psychologically scarred, and the dispossessed. His protagonists are symbolic of war's long-term human consequences—trauma, disability, alienation, and loss of identity. Significantly, Owen eschews overt displays of patriotism or nationalist fervor, instead posing deeply philosophical questions about the meaning of war and the constructed nature of the enemy. His work shifts the focus from abstract ideals to the tangible suffering of individuals, offering a profoundly humanistic critique of modern conflict.

Conclusion: 

War poetry gives us a deep and powerful understanding of the pain, loss, and emotional impact of war. Through vivid images and strong emotions, poets show not only the physical destruction caused by war but also the inner suffering of soldiers and civilians. While some poems support patriotic feelings, many others reveal the harsh truths of violence and fear. War poetry reminds us that behind every battle, there are human lives, broken dreams, and lasting trauma. It helps us feel and remember the real cost of war.

Reference 

Nayar, Pramod K. A Short History of English Literature. Foundation Books, 2009.