Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier," serves as an example of Georgian poetry in its glorification of war. In this poem, the soldier praises the idea of dying in battle for England and upholds the ideal of celebrating the nation rather than focusing on the physical horror of being killed in combat.
In the first stanza of this poem, the soldier declares that if he dies, there will be "some corner of a foreign field / That is forever England" (lines 2-3). These lines demonstrate Brooke's use of positive imagery to describe death during warfare. As is common in Georgian poetry, the soldier is primarily concerned with celebrating England, rather than the gruesome aspects involved with dying in warfare. This is perceived when he discusses the "foreign" grounds on which he may die and declares this soil as English territory "forever." Instead of focusing on the disenchanting aspect of his rotting corpse, Brooke treats the death of this soldier as though his body is a flag that is meant to mark the field as being conquered by England. Brooke does not describe the torturous nature of death in war and only acknowledges how the soldier honors England by dying in the process of defending the nation.
In subsequent lines of the first stanza, Brooke further focuses on praising war in honor of defending England, rather than on the physical death and destruction that results. In lines three through eight, the soldier declares, "There shall be / In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; / A dust whom England bore, ... / A body of England's, breathing English air, / Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home." By using optimistic words such as "rich," "blest," and "suns of home," Brooke pleasantly portrays death. These words convey positive connotations and provide a brighter outlook for death in warfare, which is later depicted as a negative experience by the World War I poets. The soldier mentions the "richer dust concealed" in the earth from his dying body that was once "washed by the rivers...of home" (4, 8). This exemplifies how Brooke does not illustrate the pain endured in such a death, nor the actual decay of the corpse, since it is only "dust," but rather portrays the soldier's body as being a symbol of England's natural landscape, such as its "rivers." This further demonstrates how fighting for one's nation in war is glorified, since the soldier's death only serves to honor England.
Brooke continues to use positive words in the second stanza, such as "happy," "laughter," "peace," and "heaven" in describing the soldiers death and continues to focus on praising England as the soldier contemplates his death during warfare, rather than on the harshness involved in being killed in battle. "The Soldier" serves as a superior example of Georgian poetry, since Brooke glorifies fighting to the death in war and depicts positive images of England rather than illustrating the gory details endured by individual soldiers.
expressing the emptiness inside me..
6:40 PM
hand |"the hand" (line 1) means that a powerful person has signed
a declaration of war. That "hand" has unleashed an army against an
unprepared country. The consequence of this action appears to be the
death of a king and the questionable slaughter of many of his people.
Those who conducted the slaughter were motivated by no other reason than
that the necessary signature appeared on " the paper."
paper| "the paper," (line 1) a simple term, referring to an ordinary
piece of paper, highlights the fact that onced signed it becomes
unbelievably harmful in terms of the level of destruction it has
caused.
felled| "felled a city" (line 1) normally the word would refer to the
cutting down or felling of a tree which once accomplished can result in
a useful by-product but leaves behind an organism that cannot grow
again. The effective use of "felled" suggests the sudden as well as
complete (and possibly irreversible) destruction of the city.
sovereign| "five sovereign fingers" (line 2) leads us to where power
resides. The frightening point is that it is not simply that one
individual or "hand" hold real power, but rather it is five "little"
appendages/fingers that hold true power. The word "sovereign" meaning
having dominant and independent authority emphasizes the perception
that the power of the "five sovereign fingers" was, in fact, unlimited.
taxed| "taxed the breath" (line 2) uses the verb "to tax" meaning to
levy a tax on; charge, accuse; put under pressure refers to the
horrible strain placed on the soldiers participating in the attack.
globe| "globe" (line 3) a spherical representation of the earth ;
alludes to the far-reaching outcome of one man's actions.
sloping| as in (line 5) "The mighty hand that leads to the sloping
shoulder"; slope meaning slant or incline. This line suggests that this
man is tired and worn out after launching his ambitious campaign.
cramped| "The finger joints cramped with chalk" (line 6); cramp a sudden
painful contraction of the muscle; this line reveals that the leader's
hand had become terribly cramped because he had been so busy drawing and
mapping out plans of battle.
hand| "The hand that signed the treaty..." (line 9) refers to the second
hand which was able to put an end to the carnage by simply signing a
peace treaty, thereby, ending what was started by the first hand.
bred, fever, locusts| (lines 9 and 10) arouse a feeling of bitterness
and dismay felt by the poet in the aftermath of the war. the reader must
feel some kind of anger at the complete destruction of a country.
scribbled| "scribbled name" (line 12); scribble, meaning to write
hastily or carelessly; these words show that a hastily signed name was
oblivious of the consequences of its actions.
crusted| "The five kings count the dead but do not soften the crusted
wound nor pat the brow" (line 14); crust, meaning a hard surface layer;
this line refers to how the hand (he) adds up the casualties without
displaying any emotion or willingness to do something to ease the pain
and suffering it(he) has caused.
rules| "as a hand rules heaven " (line 15) suggests that the
omnipotent(all-powerful) hand even plays a role in governing heaven by
the fact that he has dispatched so many soldiers there by his will
alone.
tears| "Hands have no tears to flow" (line 16); the final line closes
with the thought that the slaughter of people and destruction of a
country was caused not by his mind but simply by a man's hand.
Thomas' poem is an expression of both extreme horror and amazement at the power a single individual is capable of wielding. In the context of how states or groups interact with one another on the world stage , Thomas questions how is it possible that such destructive and supreme power can be exploited by a single individual who symbolizes those in a position of leadership over others. The poem causes us to feel a sense of bitterness about those who exercise the kind of power and influence over many that is described in the poem. Along with a feeling of bitterness the poet is also expressing a strong element of fear. The fear is expressed in terms of the possibility that the same fearful consequences that befell others could be faced by not only himself, but by his family, friends and fellow-citizens as well.
邱吉尔说:失去的永远不会比手上现在握住的多
expressing the emptiness inside me..
6:29 PM
W.H Auden does what a blues writer would do: takes a single main theme and makes variations on it, leading to a particularly powerful finale. The theme of this 'song' is the abuse of human rights experienced not only by German Jews but by other Jews and by refugees anywhere.
'Some in mansions, some in holes' - but no home at all for the refugee.
'Once we had a country': now, not only no home, but no country either. In the Jews' case, since the exodus from Palestine in the 1st century, many had, where and when they could, taken the nationality of whichever country they grew up in. From the end of the 19th century many Jews hoped to emigrate to Palestine, but this was not easy: the country was also the home of Arab Palestinians, and Palestine itself had long been run by foreigners. (From 1922 till 1948, the administration of Palestine was British.)
'Old passports': out of date and officially invalid and non-renewable for Jews.
'The consul': representing a country to which the refugees wanted to travel.
'a committee': officially set up to try to help refugees, but with its hands tied politically.
'
a public meeting': one of a number of such meetings held in countries receiving Jewish immigrants - there was resistance to strangers 'stealing our jobs'.
'they must die': it is generally agreed that Hitler gave an order to exterminate Jews, for whom he held a lifetime's hatred.
'poodle in a jacket': the Jews were treated as lower than animals - and later the Nazi officials would speak of them as sub-human.
'fish swimming as if they were free': even animals seem to have more freedom than the Jewish refugees.
'no politicians': the decision to destroy the Jews was a political decision; a decision to go to war is a political decision.
'a building with a thousand floors': copious accommodation? A vast ghetto? An image of Babel, and the many races of the world? None has room for the Jews.
'ten thousand soldiers': troops looking for Jews to send them to labour camps, from which few emerged? Or, later, the death squads sent to find Jews and kill them? Either way, this 'song' arrives at its terrifying ending: the refugees are being deliberately hunted down, and, as the preceding tension-building stanzas have made clear, they have nowhere at all to go.
萧伯纳说：宁可独居野外，也不要和固执的人一起 同处一室
expressing the emptiness inside me..
5:27 PM
For those who din listen to wad mr ahmad said abt "naming of parts"
The poem, we first note, is the reaction of an army recruit to what he hears and sees. The first three lines of each stanza, except those of the final stanza, present the instructor's lesson in the nomenclature of the Lee Enfield(an English rifle similar to the American Springfield). It is important to recognize that while the lesson moves from part to part, at no point does it progress from nomenclature to function:
Stanza one introduces the piecemeal approach of the instruction;
Stanza two names the upper and lower swivels, but without sling and piling swivel A piling swivel (called a stacking swivel in the United States, or
Aufstellbügel in Germany) is a metal, C-shaped bracket, mounted on the nosecap toward the end of a rifle barrel, just behind the bayonet mount
the trainee cannot be told how to carry or stack his rifle;
Stanza three takes up the proper procedure for releasing the safety-catch without explaining its purpose;
And stanza four expresses the same concern for aimless naming of the loading and firing mechanism.
The vocabulary of the lesson is limited and unimaginative, the statements are repetitious and halting, and the cumulative effect of the voice on recruit and reader is one of boredom. Because he has selected only those aspects of the lesson which would appear disconnected and meaningless, the poet makes the lesson appear to have no more significant objective than the naming of parts—some of which are unexplained—of an instrument for destroying life.
Now let us see what the trainee is doing as the lesson proceeds. Awkwardly holding his gun (the branches hold "silent, eloquent gestures, which in our case we have not got"), he goes through the motions demanded of him. But like that of many another reluctant pupil caught in the hour of spring, his attention is elsewhere. In general, it is focused on a cultivated area, "the neighboring gardens," and in particular on one species of bush, the
Prunus japonica or flowering almond. The recruit's observations are developed by a second voice which begins after the caesura in the fourth line and flows through the fifth line of each stanza.
In every instance this second voice is triggered by the manual of arms lesson, but it is characterized by an emotive and sensuous diction which serves to create sharply defined images centering on the blossoms of the seed-bearing plant. In the first stanza the new voice, like a good student's, begins with the scientific (and romantic) name of the plant but immediately reveals its freshness and color; in succeeding stanzas this voice discovers the meaningful shape and stance of the branches (perhaps open-armed or gracefully beckoning), the delicately weightless and still quality of the expectant blossoms, and finally (in an implied comparison with the trainees) the warlike and awkward action of the early bees engaged in their purposeful task. The sixth line always picks up a phrase from the lesson to form an ironic comment which links and enlarges the sense of both voices.
In these stanzas the poet has made use of two voices, we find, to single out a series of images set in opposition between the mechanized and the natural worlds: pointless task against pregnant stillness; the cold, colorless rifle against the warm, colorful blossom; the awkward motions of the soldier against the eloquent gestures of the branches; the mechanical manipulations against the natural processes. The fifth stanza organizes echoes and images from the preceding stanzas into a final expanded perception for the reader.
2/7 poems analyzed
Shakespeare说:上帝是公平 掌握命运的人永远站在天平的两端 被命运掌握的人仅仅只明白上帝赐给他命运！
expressing the emptiness inside me..
5:20 PM
Hey hey i got frm a teacher the poem that would be out for lit exam.the poem would be 1 of the 7:
-No ordinary Sunday
-Naming of parts
-The send-off
-The soldier
-The hand that signed the paper
-say this city has ten million souls
-For the Fallen(September 1914)
So i am gonna try my best to analyze all the 7 poems."The Send-off is already analyzed..
Shakespeare说:美满的爱情,使斗士紧绷的心情松弛下来
expressing the emptiness inside me..
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
5:27 PM
found in pg160,written by wilfred owen
Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way
To the siding-shed,
And lined the train with faces grimly gay.
[Darkening foreshadows their impending death at the front - a gloomy image. 'Grimly gay' is an oxymoron - they are putting on a brave face but inside they are apprehensive]
Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray
As men's are, dead.
[the flowers ('wreath and spray) are parting gifts from their loved ones but they are also an image of death. The point is that the men are going to their deaths]
Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp
Stood staring hard,
Sorry to miss them from the upland camp.
Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp
Winked to the guard.
[Here there is a feeling as if bebeath the surface, everyone knows what will happen to them ('nodded' and 'winked' suggest this).]
So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went.
They were not ours:
We never heard to which front these were sent.
[This suggests that the authorities didn't want to make a big thing about these troops being sent ; they didn't want a lot of publicity. It's almost as if the authorities knew that what they were doing was wrong]
Nor there if they yet mock what women meant
Who gave them flowers.
{[The poet wonders whether one the soldiers ar at the front will now consider the flowers that were given to them as if they were wreaths and that the women were making fun of them]
Shall they return to beatings of great bells
In wild trainloads?
A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,
May creep back, silent, to still village wells
Up half-known roads.
[Here the poet pictures the return of only a few men who will not be treated with any great repsect or honour - most will die at the front.]
The pace of the poem is slow and measured, reflecting its gloomy subject matter.
Note the rhymes.
不良的习惯会随时阻碍你走向成名、获利和享乐的路上去。 —— 莎士比亚
expressing the emptiness inside me..
