The Poetry Magazine does an excellent job in covering topics such as patriotism, religion and the aftermath of the war through poetry. There is a sense of strong love of ones country and the need to protect it in many of the poems. A poem titled “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke illustrates this perfectly. The poem goes on to say how the soldier “gives somewhere back the thoughts [to him] by England given”. Throughout the poem he very much speaks fondly of England as if that was his birth mother and she the only thing worth protecting. There are also several instances of religion being used as a coping mechanism to deal with the mortal wounds sustained in war. In the “Slavic Song” a soldier tells his mother not to worry about his numerous wounds but rather call the “doctor, the young carpenter” a clear reference to Jesus. Here we also see the bravery that the soldiers exhibited… The young man comforts his mother and tells her not to worry for he is not badly wounded even though he knows he is about to die. Poetry also touches on the issue of the returning soldiers in poems such as “The Veteran” by Margaret L. Postgate. Postgate tells of a man retelling the many horrors of war to young men but in the end we hear that the storyteller is not even 19 years old yet. This was particularly a touching poem because it showed what happened after the war to all the irrevocably damaged young men that fought so hard for their country. Overall Poetry very much was shaped by the War and the experience it brought.
Due: 6/23 Blog Post
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