Antiwar Poetry

Poets have written about the experience of war since the Greeks, but the
young soldier poets of the First World War established war poetry as a
literary genre. Their combined voice has become one of the defining
texts of Twentieth Century Europe.

In 1914 hundreds of young men in uniform took to writing poetry as a

way of striving to express extreme emotion at the very edge of
experience. The work of a handful of these, such as Owen, Rosenberg
and Sassoon, has endured to become what Andrew Motion has called ‘a
sacred national text’.

Although ‘war poet’ tends traditionally to refer to active combatants,

war poetry has been written by many ‘civilians’ caught up in conflict in
other ways: Cesar Vallejo and WH Auden in the Spanish Civil War,
Margaret Postgate Cole and Rose Macaulay in the First World War,
James Fenton in Cambodia.

In the global, ‘total war’ of 1939-45, that saw the holocaust, the blitz and
Hiroshima, virtually no poet was untouched by the experience of war.
The same was true for the civil conflicts and revolutions in Spain and
Eastern Europe. That does not mean, however, that every poet responded
to war by writing directly about it. For some, the proper response of a
poet was one of consciously (conscientiously) keeping silent.
War poetry, in short, is poetry dealing with the subject of war. Often
composed during a particular conflict, these poems are often written by
soldiers. However, nurses and doctors in military hospitals and even war
correspondents wrote war poems. In general, the authors are all people
who saw with their own eyes what is really happening on the
battlefield. Although people have been writing poetry about war for
thousands of years, war poetry differs significantly from the conflict
poetry of earlier times.
Poems written by soldiers in World War I and subsequent conflicts were
not epics; these verses did not praise heroes or epic battles. Rather, they
often questioned the purpose of war, why people fight,
and generally an unflinching, realistic portrayal of the nature
of combat. War poetry is purely realistic, depicting war in a
lackluster and unromantic light.
The term was coined by Randall Jarrell in his essay “The Literature of
War” (1961). Jarrell defines war poetry as “a poem that has as its theme
war and that is written during or about a war”.
War poetry is not necessarily ‘anti-war’. It is, however, about the very
large questions of life: identity, innocence, guilt, loyalty, courage,
compassion, humanity, duty, desire, death. Its response to these
questions, and its relation of immediate personal experience to moments
of national and international crisis, gives war poetry an extra-literary
importance. Owen wrote that even Shakespeare seems ‘vapid’ after
Sassoon: ‘not of course because Sassoon is a greater artist, but because
of the subjects’.
Anti-War poetry is a type of war poetry.

A social movement known as an anti-war movement (sometimes

spelled antiwar) typically opposes a nation's decision to initiate or
continue an armed conflict without regard to any potential legitimate
justification.
However, it is about the very important issues in life, such as death,
duty, desire, obligation, loyalty, innocence, and humanity.
This type of poetry is related to peace

While some anti-war groups concentrate on specific atrocities

committed during a particular fight, like the deployment of poison gas or
the genocidal death of civilians, others condemn armed conflicts in
general to demonstrate that war is pointless and a loss for all parties
involved.
By depicting the horrors of conflict and its devastation in realistic,
frequently first-person accounts, antiwar literature dispels these
misconceptions about war.
Most antiwar literature have a broader aim for exposing the misery and
cruelty of all war, however some authors have clear political
perspectives.
Wilfred Owen, disgusted by the brutality and waste of war, produced
some of the most potent antiwar poems ever written in English. He
expressed the physical, moral, and psychological devastation of the First
World War with unparalleled strength because of his tremendous
personal experience as a soldier.
Owen wrote the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est as a rebuttal to Jessie
Pope's poetry, which characterised war as a delightful and fun place. The
poem discusses Owen's experiences in the war and fighting, as well as
how it might effect a person. "He plunges at me, guttering, choking,
drowning," is one of the harsh terms Wilfred Owens uses in the poem to
describe and mimic the experience of combat. By having the characters
in his poem scream and yell, "GAS! Gas!," Wilfred Owen also employs
precise punctuation to create the impression that we are present in the
moment. Quick, boys!”. Wilfred Owens also makes it clear to the reader
that the troops will not soon forget what happened, and that the
horrifying, graphic things they witnessed will stay with them for a very
long time, "If in some smothering nightmares."

His poems, particularly "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et

Decorum Est," vividly depict the psychological and physical toll of war
from the perspective of his intensely personal experience on the front
line. Owen wanted to speak the truth about what he called "the pity of
War.
The "Nightingale of India" The poem "The Gift of India" was written by
Sarojini Naidu. This distraught poet conveys her feelings regarding the
senseless killing that the British Army's Indian soldiers went through.
Despite the Indians' resistance, there were almost a million of them who
served in the British army during World War I. Seventy thousand Indian
soldiers were injured and nearly a quarter of a million were martyred on
foreign battlefields, never to return home. The poem pays homage to the
valiant citizens who gave their lives while serving on the Western Front,
in Mesopotamia, and in Gallipoli. The Imperialist troops are also
cautioned not to overly manipulate India lest they incur heavy losses as a
result of their fascist actions.

Is there aught you need that my hands withhold,

Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold?
Lo! I have flung to the East and West
Priceless treasures torn from my breast,
And yielded the sons of my stricken womb
To the drum-beats of duty, the sabres of doom.
Gathered like pearls in their alien graves
Silent they sleep by the Persian waves,
Scattered like shells on Egyptian sands,
They lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands,
They are strewn like blossoms mown down by chance
On the blood-brown meadows of Flanders and France.
Can ye measure the grief of the tears I weep
Or compass the woe of the watch I keep?
Or the pride that thrills thro’ my heart’s despair
And the hope that comforts the anguish of prayer?
And the far sad glorious vision I see
Of the torn red banners of Victory?
When the terror and tumult of hate shall cease
And life be refashioned on anvils of peace,
And your love shall offer memorial thanks
To the comrades who fought in your dauntless ranks,
And you honour the deeds of the deathless ones
Remember the blood of thy martyred sons!

The personification of India in the poem is that of a sympathetic and

bereaved mother who has just lost her heroic sons to the desire of
imperialist nations. She asks the fascist nations in a belligerent manner
what else she can do for them. The poet is making a reference to the
British armies' exploitation of the resources of India. She asks boldly
what else they want from India, the defeated
Other poets that supported the anti-war movement included Stanley
Kunitz, Marilyn Nelson, Jay Parini, Jamaica Kincaid, Grace Paley, and
even Billy Collins, the current U.S. Poet Laureate, who is recognised for
his subtle irony and isn't usually known for adopting political opinions.

I'd like to wrap up by sharing my personal perspective on anti-war

poetry. Writing poetry is a way for people to express their emotions.
This type of poetry conveys the feelings of those who experienced the
severe repercussions of war. It was written by those who have witnessed
the brutality of war, who are opposed to it, and who fear it! Through
personal stories, the major goal is to raise awareness about the need to
end war..