The Theme of Futility in

war Poetry
Tesina
Lingua Inglese

Botez Stella
III C

CPI Faenza
22/05/2017

Botez
 World War I caused the birth of many war poets who describe the horrors of war and the terrible human
loss. The World War caused a drastic change in the poetry. Poets who witnessed this war, like Siegfried
Sassoon, Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen, the terrible experience of war left its thumbprint on their
thinking.

The pen is mightier than the sword says the proverb, and a General /denrl/ s signature /
sntr/ can send many men to their deaths.

But I prefer the idea that the pen is more powerful because great writers/ ra tr/ can communicate the
Futility /fjutlti/ of wars, and help to end them forever.

War poets

Futility is the title of a famous poem by Wilfred Owen, a war poet of the First World War (1914-1918). In
it he asks what sense there is in a life cut short in war. They are involved in conflicts and describe what
they see and their feelings about the effects of war, almost / lmost/ invariably / n veribli/ the horror /
hrr/ of death.

One English war poet Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) was a rare case. His poems expressed the patriotism
/ptritzm/ and adventure of the first months of the war. But soon it was obvious that this was a new
kind of war, where the modern arms caused death on a scale never seen before.

Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) was an officer who wrote poems full of anger and horror. His anti-war
position was considered the result of shellshock and he was hospitalized. In hospital he met Owen and,
appreciating his talent, he encouraged /nkrd/ him to write more.

Wilfred Owen was born in 1893. He wasnt accepted at university and went to teach English in France.
He was a pacifist, but when he visited a hospital of wounded in 1915 he decided to enlist.

He returned to France in 1917 as a second lieutenant. /lu tennt/ In the summer, at the Somme, as a
shell landed a few meters from him, and, after days in a bomb crater with a dead companion /km
pnin/, he was saved and sent to the hospital where he met Sassoon.

In August 1918 he returned to the Western Front and won a medal, the Military Cross. He also wrote
some exceptional poetry like:Anthem for Doomed Youth, Dulce et Decorum Est..
One of them which Owen deals with Futility of religion is:

Soldier's Dream

I dreamed kind Jesus fouled the big-gun gears;

And caused a permanent stoppage in all bolts;
And buckled with a smile Mausers and Colts;
And rusted every bayonet with His tears.

And there were no more bombs, of ours or Theirs, (5)

Not even an old flint-lock, nor even a pikel.
But God was vexed, /vekst/ and gave all power to Michael;
And when I woke he'd seen to our repairs.

Image of the Archangel Michael trampling Satan.


As we can see in this title, the author in this poem talks about war, specifically the First World War, in
which the author was a soldier. The title suggest us the desire of the end of the war, only a soldier's
dream... but it is the dream of all soldiers, and all the world too.

This poem is a reflection of Owens feelings. The soldier who is dreaming can be the author perfectly,
because he was a soldier too.

The war is horror; it separates families, friends, countries... God gives us the power of the election, we
can elect what we want to do, but maybe He doesnt think that we will use this power to hurt us, and there
are our elections, were kind Jesus cant do anything, because we are who have the power... to do good
actions or bad.