War Poetry
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
, 5:53 PM
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Task 1: Hubert Wilson was a SSG in the USAF from 1968 - 1972 He fought in the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. The wars: Casualties - 4300 US soldiers - 241 UK soldiers - 100000 Iraqi civilians Previous Wars - 935 US soldiers - 179 UK soldiers - 30000 Iraqi cilvilians Financial Cost 3 Trilion warpoetry.co.uk Task 2: 1. Point of View Evidence: Toll on the innocent and unborn Expecting others to pay a high price? Elaboration: From the first piece of evidence, we can see that the speaker in this poem has actually encountered the war before, this can be seen as he says, Toll on the innocent and unborn. From this, it is evident that the speaker and poet was in the war, and thats how he knew about America killing those innocent and even unborn babies, we can see that the speaker is a soldier as he has first hand experiacne,not like the citizens in America, where the government propoganda them to believe that war is a great and righteous thing. We can also see that the speaker is sacarstic about the government in America, from Expecting others to pay a high price? we can see that the speaker has lost many friends and comarades in the war and is sceptic about the government as he think that they are waging a war for nothing and that war would only birng more disaster with both sides paying a high price. 2. Situation and Setting Evidence: Reflective about the all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead. Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri! Elaboration: Here, we can see that the setting is on a battlefield, where the war caused by America resulted in lots of deaths. Also, we can see a typical battle scene here, where soldiers rush to kill innocent civilians, Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead. Also, we can see bombings, where Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri! This shows that the situation was really bad at that time as the war made the soldiers so numb that even the bombs thrown by America look bight and happy to them, they might have also still be under America Propoganda, and thus still think that bombing the innoccent Iraqis were good and 'righteous'. 3. Language/ Diction Evidence: Execrable effect of orange spray Elaboration: Here, the poet is using a metaphor, the orange spray is actually blood, but since America has been led astray by propoganda, even the innocent blood spilled by the US troops look so cheerful and happy to them, making think that spilling innocent blood like this is good and right. By doing so, the poet is emphasizing on the fact that the war is not as glorious and victorius all the time, it is not like the fairytales children, war is really and both sides suffer heavy losses. 4. Personal Response In my opinion, I think that this poem is right, we should stand up to a wayward government, war is a horrifying thing and the government should not keep it under wraps and portray it as such a glorius thing to their citizens. I think that war should be avoided at all costs and not waged on every whim, war is dangerous, but what is even more dangerous is the governments propoganda of war, this propoganda makes people think that their sons and husband will just do fine and emerge victorius, giving the people false hope, this propoganda also portrays each own country to be superior, thus this might also infulence the younger generation, resulting in them waging war when they finally take over the country. |
