Key Words:
Perception of The War And The Role of Women

Urban Carlotta
5 ALS
As 2015/2016
In the present work, I will analyse eight texts (six poems and two novels) in order to extract ten key words, five about the perception of the war and five about the role of women.
After have analysed all the text, I will collect all the key words in a first table (APPENDIX I). Secondly, I’ll consider separately the two categories of key words (those about the war and the ones about the role of women) and create a table to bring to light the recurrence of some key words in the different texts (APPENDIX II and APPENDIX IV). The results will be organised also into a histogram (APPENDIX III and APPENDIX V). In the end, I’ll interpret the result in a synopsis. 

The texts analysed are:
1.	“The Soldier” by R. Brooke
2.	“Dulce Et Decorum Est” by W. Owen 
3.	“The Glory of Women” by S. Sassoon
4.	“They” by S. Sassoon
5.	“Last Post” by C. A. Duffy
6.	“In Flanders Fields” by J. McCrae
7.	“The Fox” by DH Lawrence
8.	“La Grande Guerra A Piedi” by N. Giraldi

Analysis of The Texts

THE SOLDIER by Rupert Brooke
The collection “1914” by Rupert Brooke includes the poem “The soldier”. The collection has been published in 1915 and so before the end of the First World War.                                                         Considering the title, the reader can notice that it starts with the definitive article ‘the’; therefore the poem is not about an undefined soldier: the speaking voice has a specific soldier in mind. Considering lay out the reader can find out that the poem is a sonnet and it follows the Petrarchan from (indeed it consists of an octave and a sestet). Even if it follows the Petrarchan form, it doesn’t follow the objective for which the Petrarchan model was invented: generally, the octave had to present a difficult situation while the sestet had to provide a solution; in this sonnet the solution is not provided. Even if the poem follows the Petrarchan structure, the rhyme scheme is the one of a Shakespearean sonnet ABABCDCD EFGEFG.                                                                                                 When the poem was publish and the readers read the title, they immediately thought about a soldier who used to fight in the First World War.There is also another piece of information: this sonnet is considered the finale of the collection and so it is probably the most important.                                    The volta of the sonnet is after the forth line because the poet moves from the description of the death of the soldier to the soldier’s life accomplishment. The poem encompasses the memories of a dead soldier who declares his patriotism towards his homeland.                                                                      The speaking voice is the one of a soldier who hasn’t taken part in war. Therefore the idea of war conveyed by the poet is a mere perception: he considers an hypothetical situation where he might die in somewhere abroad (‘If I should die’). In the middle of the third line there is the key-word ‘England’. In parallel, at the centre of the fourth line there is the word ‘earth’. The soil becomes richer because it hides the bodies of somebody who has fought for England. At the same time, England is personified as a mother that ‘bore, shaped and made’ the soldiers aware, and so, with his death, the speaking voice can return to his mother. As the reader can see, England is pervading the speaking voice’s mind: the poet has a very close relationship with his own land. Indeed, even the ‘foreign field’ becomes a part of England (’that is for ever England’). The octave presents the situation of a soldier who will probably die and lay on a ‘foreign field’ that, in a way or another, will become an expansion of the English territories (the place where the body of an English soldier lies will be ‘for ever England’). In addition, there is a comparison between the richness of the earth and England, that gives its soldiers rich opportunities. So the function of the octave is to express the speaking voice’s patriotism. On the other hand, in the sestet the speaking voice doesn’t provide a resolution: it conveys an atmosphere that is the blissful state of the English soldier. His sacrifices will be the eternal ownership of England since he offers his life to England. Since the speaking voice had not fought the war yet, the sonnet might express the common idea of the people living in that period. The speaking voice is the soldier’s voice, and the soldier is an ideal one. The mass media of the time could use the sonnet for inviting young people to join the Army and sacrifice themselves for the greatness of England; indeed the poem celebrates the war that helps to make England great: sacrifice is worth to celebrate the greatness of England. In a way or another, the speaking voice celebrates also immortality and it conveys a romantic atmosphere.                                      The soldier is reassured by the reward in heaven and by the awareness that his sacrifice will make the Country live for ever (England continues to exist also in a foreign land and in heaven, where  the speaking voice will return after his death and will live again all his positive experiences he had lived in life). The atmosphere is created by alliterations and the rhetorical figures of sound (‘Foreign’ ‘field’ ‘for ever’ - alliteration of the sound f ; ‘body’ ‘breathing’ ‘by’ ‘blest’ – alliteration of the sound b ; ‘laughter’ ‘learnt’). The first line creates a nostalgic idea, as if the speaking voice is already dead.                                                                                                                            The reward is that in heaven he will leave again all the positive experiences he had lived in life (this is conveyed by the repetition, the technical level anticipates the reward). Death is not an end but but the beginning of a new blissful but familiar life in heaven. The whole sonnet is an image, because the poet is not dead: so the war takes place only in the speaking voice’s mind.  The key word is England, that is not only the English territory, but it includes also the ‘foreign field’ and heaven (in that way England is magnified). Living in heaven is a way to receive back the good things he had done in life: the speaking voice knows he might die but he believes that his sacrifice will benefit his country and so that he will be rewarded (Brookes’ idea of the ideal soldier who sacrifices his life is the same of a common European person). So the sonnet develops a pre-war idealism: the poet celebrates an ideal conflict without explaining the real atrocities.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST by Wilfred Owen

The narrator chooses to give the poem a latin title. Maybe the narrator’s interlocutors were literate people or (more likely) the interlocutors were soldiers and common people, since the title is easy to translate and it might be a quotation known by the people. In both cases, the title draws the reader’s attention since it is not written in English. The use of latin seems to give power and prestige to the poem. Therefore, the intelligent reader may wonder why the narrator uses a magnifying language in order to refer to war. He/she may think that this choice is useful to create a juxtaposition between the pre-war idealism and the real war.
In the poem, Wilfred Owen presents the real war to an interlocutor that has an ideal perception of it (“my friend, you would not tell with such high zest [..] dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”). Indeed he minutely represents a gas attack at the frontline, paying particular attention to the description of the soldiers’ physical and psychological situation. The poem is arranged into four stanzas of different length: 8, 6, 2 and 12 lines each.                            While in the first two stanzas the narrator evokes minutely a scene of gas attack, the third stanza seems to be the turning point of the poem: indeed, in the last stanzas the narrator relives what he had previously described and reflects on the common perception of war.                  What links the first part of the poem with the second one is mainly the image of an unidentified soldier who dies because he hasn’t fit the ‘clumsy helmet’ in time. Indeed, in the second stanza the narrator asserts “I saw him drowning” and in the third stanza the narrator dreams about the soldier’s death. 
Another link is given by the use of the language: in the whole poem the narrator uses a concrete, bloody and harsh language in order to evoke the horrors of war. For example, presenting the speaking voice’s dream, the narrator uses an accumulation of verbs that gives concreteness to the scene (in addition it uses the verb ‘drowning’ that recalls the previous stanza). The poet doesn’t overlooks any detail: on the contrary he makes references to all parts of the body (‘knock-kneed’, ‘blind’, ‘deaF’..) and uses clear metaphors and similes to create images in the reader’s mind (‘like hags’, ‘green sea’, ‘like a devil’s sick of sin’..).                  All in all, the language used in the poem is in opposition with the one used in the title and in the last lines of the poem. Indeed, the aim of the poet is to call into question the common perception of war: while people used to consider war as Rupert Brooke and Horace did, Wilfred Owen presents to the reader the real war and what it implied. War means danger, blood, death, pity, agony and the statement ‘dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’ is only an ‘old lie’.

THE GLORY OF WOMEN by Siegfried Sassoon
Considering the title, the reader may think that the poem has been written in order to magnify women. On the other hand, considering Sassoon’s poetry (where irony is used as a weapon), the poet might have written the poem to make fun of them. Going on reading the reader understands that the poet is playing on what makes women proud.
This is conveyed through a semantic and a syntactic juxtaposition. Considering the layout of the poem the reader can find out that there are two stanzas that follow the same structure: in the first part of the stanza (from line 1 to 8 in the first stanza; lines 12-13 in the second one) the poet presents the women’s point of view on the soldiers, while in the second one he brings to light what war really meant.
In addition, in order to highlight women’s superficiality, the poet creates a juxtaposition between ‘you’ (women) and ‘we’ (soldiers) that recalls the opposition between who knows what war mean, and who doesn’t. Indeed, the soldier’s actions remind the reader of the horrors of war (‘leave’, ‘wounded’, ‘fight’, ‘killed’..) while the women’s actions recall something positive (‘love’, ‘worship’, ‘listen with delight’, ‘crown’..). Even the action of mourning (line 8) seems to be something good since it is provoked by ‘laurelled memories’. It seems logical that in the second part of the stanza (line 9) the poet uses the expression ‘you can’t believe’ when it presents war, that connotes women’s denial of reality. In the second stanza, the poet underlines how even the German mother (the enemy’s mother) adopts the same behavior. So Sassoon does not criticize only English women, but he universalizes women’s behavior in front of war and soldiers. Women magnify war and soldiers, converting negative aspects (translated into words like ‘disgrace’, ‘danger’, ‘hell’, ‘horror’..) into positive ones (‘heroes’, ‘chivalry’, ‘ardours’, ‘laurelled memories’..) and mistake the soldier’s actions for bravery. 

THEY by Siegfried Sassoon
Reading the title the reader may suppose that the subject pronoun ‘they’ (title of the poem) refers to the soldiers. Therefore, the poem may present the soldier’s situation. Considering the whole poem, the reader understands that the poet focuses his attention on the soldier’s condition after the war, and so on the changes that brought the war.
As a matter of fact, in the first stanza the poet quotes the bishop (that stands for the religious institution), who justifies the soldier’s changes. Right from the start the reader understands that there are two levels of analysis: a denotative one that brings to light the justification of the soldier’s change; and a deeper one that unveils the poet’s critic on the Anglican Church.                                                                                                                                                As it regards the denotative level, the reader can notice that the Bishop connotes the war as a ‘just cause’ and a fight against the enemy (metaphorically personified in the Anti-Christ). On the other hand, a deeper analysis brings to surface how the poet criticizes the Church. For example, the sentence ‘we’re none of us the same’ (line 7), seems to ironically recall the Bishop’s speech; and the following example of the atrocity that brought changes in the soldiers (lines 9-11) are useful in order to materialize the war (while the Bishop uses a metaphorical and abstract language).                                                                                                                           To make things become more concrete, the poet also chooses to name some soldiers (George, Bill,..) so that the abstract ‘they’ starts to gain an identity. In response of such statement the Bishop can only say ‘the ways of God are strange’: the answer evokes the disorientation of the Bishop. Indeed, while in the first line the Bishop ‘tells us’ (and so he addresses the soldiers), in the last line the Bishop simply ‘says’: this choice unveils the poet’s indifference. 

LAST POST by Carol Ann Duffy
The title recalls the typical sound of trumpets used in funerals. Indeed the Laureate poet Carol Ann Duffy wrote the poem for the funeral of one of the last English veterans of the First World War. Right from the quotation in the title, the reader understands that the poet has a negative perception of the war (the typical music is not a glorious and magnifying one).The reader’s hypothesis is confirmed by the first lines of the poem; Quoting two lines of “dulce et decorum est” by Wilfred Owen, the poet unveils her idea: she criticizes the common idea of war.                                                                                                                      The main device used by the poet is playing a “war film” backwards. The choice is useful in order to explain that if time could be going backwards, wounded soldiers wouldn’t have gone to war. Indeed the expression ‘you walk away’ (repeated two times), the image of the soldiers leaning ‘against a wall’ (not against tranches), the images of a common life (‘work, children, talent, English beer, good food’).. all together unveil what soldier didn’t experienced because they had to fight in the war. This strategy brings also to surface the limited power of poetry: words can’t be told backwards, therefore poetry couldn’t truly tell war backwards. In other words, the horrors of war can not be delated, men can only change the present time before actions become a terrible memory that people have to forget. Therefore, the poem can be considered a critic against the war England was fighting against Afghanistan at the time Duffy wrote the poem.                                                                                                                       Playing the film backwards, the reader can imagine soldiers going back to the tranches. In order to create a more vivid image, the poet uses alliterations and quotations (this poem is a post-modern poem). Considering the alliterative language, the reader can notice at line 5 the alliteration of the sound ‘b’ (‘bled bad blood’) that highlights the presence of blood and so the sense of death that PERVADE the poem. The poem works also on quotations. First of all, at line 12 the poet quotes Horace (‘dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’), but like Sassoon she uses the statement in order to mean the exact opposite: there’s nothing sweet in dying for your home Country. In order to make the turnover possible, the poet splits up the latin line with the anaphoric expression ‘no’. At line 16, the poet seems to quote Sassoon again giving an identity to the soldiers like Sassoon does in the poem ‘They’ (the accomulation of names shows how many people died). In addition, at line 23 Duffy names the war song ‘Tipperary’ written by an Irish soldier. Considering all the quotation, the reader can notice that the poet quotes not only poetry, but everything that belongs to a culture of war.                                                                     All in all, the reader comes to know that the poem is an anti-war poem and its aim is to make new generation reflect on what young people use to give for granted. Indeed the poet juxtaposes the life at the frontline and everyday life and highlights the importance of relating with other people (the poetess refers to the soldiers’ mates calling them ‘boys’) because peace has to be teach right from the youth. Therefore Poetry (whose importance is highlighted at the beginning of the poem and at the end of it) can’t change the past, but can become an occasion for reflect on war in order to avoid it and so a tool for educate.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS by John McCrae
Reading the title, the reader immediately links the poem to the First World War; Indeed the Flanders (a region of Belgium) were a crucial territory where English soldiers fought. Therefore, right from the start the reader understands that the poem will deal with War.                                                                                  More in particular, the poet focuses his attention on the soldiers’ condition: ‘short days ago’ they were alive, while now they ‘lie in Flanders fields’. The opposition life-death invades the whole poem, and it is given also through the opposition high-low (‘blow’, ‘sky’, ’fly’ / ‘crosses’, ‘place’, ‘below’), the opposition movement-stillness (‘lived’, ‘felt’, ‘loved’ / ‘lie’) and the opposition created by the singing of the larks and the noise of the guns and by the blooming poppies and the dead soldiers (evoked by the crosses).                                                                           
In order to give life to the soldiers, the poet chooses to pretend to be one of them: in the last two stanzas the poet uses the subject pronoun ‘we’ and imagines to write even if he’s dead. Indeed, the second stanza starts with the sentence ‘we are the Dead’ that both warns the reader of the fiction, both puts the attention on the soldiers’ condition of Dead (‘Dead’ is capitalized).                                                                                                                                              In the last stanza, the poet conveys his perception of the war, criticizing it. When soldiers die they ‘throw the torch’ to other soldiers that will ‘hold it high’ as the dead soldiers had done before dying; in other words, the new soldiers will follow the same destiny of the dead ones and so they will die too. Therefore, the poppies, that ‘blow between the crosses’ and mark the place where soldiers lie, will continue to grow (because the soldier will continue to die) even if the Dead soldiers will be forgotten by everyone.  

THE FOX by DH Lawrence 
The short story is about two women (Banford and March) that manage a farm in the English district of Berkshire. Indeed, thanks to the start given by Banford’s father, the two friends wanted to be independent and survive rearing chickens, living by poultry, keeping a cow, and raising one or two young beasts. ‘Unfortunately, things did not turn out well’: when Banford’s grandfather (who lived with the girls) died, they were left alone and they started to have some problems. One of the main problems was a fox that used to kill all their fowls. They had to keep guard and try to shoot it. 
Right from the beginning of the story, the narrator unveils to the reader how the women’s independency is only an illusion since they depend on Banford’s father and grandfather, on the fox (who obliges the two girls to take precautions, keep guard..) and, later on, on the soldier Henry. 
Indeed, one night a soldier (the grandson of the previous master of the farm) arrived at the farm. The two ladies decided to give hospitality to him (Banford considered his stay as a visit from her cousin, on the other side March seemed not to be happy for his presence). The soldier immediately understood that the two women needed a male figure in the farm and decided to move there. Shortly after, March started to get closer to the man even if she identified him with the fox (both of them seemed to represent the male figure March needed) while Banford started to distance herself from him. Perceiving Banford’ threat and feeling everyday comfier at the farm, the soldier decided to ask March to merry him. From now to the end of the story, Henry’s behaviour will be the one of a predator when it is hunting his prey: he will destroy every obstacle, from the fox (in order to end his identification with the beast made by March) to Banford (in order to make possible the marriage and the change of residence).   

LA GRANDE GUERRA A PIEDI by Nicolò Giraldi

The narrator decided to report his journey: he walked from London (Charing Cross) to Trieste, travelling through the First World War frontline. He decided to start his journey for three main reasons: he has been inspired by Patrick Leigh Fermor (who walked from London to Instanbul), he wanted to became a famous journalist writing an original novel and, last but not least, he wanted to pay homage to his great-grandfather Nicolò Giraldi.

On his way, Mr Girlandi managed to collect marks left by the conflict: he visited memorial monuments (only trace of English soldiers on English territory) and he collected indirect information talking with experts and listening to the ones who hosted him. In addition, the narrator chooses also to give the readers his own perception, including his thoughts in the narration. 
The main objective is not only to present the First World War from the point of view of the people who work in order to spread its knowledge, but, above all,  it is a way of letting people know that there’s nothing to celebrate even if there is the centenary of the First World War. 

APPENDIX I

Key Words: Perception of The War And The Role of Women

In the following table, the reader can find the Key Words extracted from the texts previously analysed. 

	War	Women	
“The Soldier”
by R. Brooke	Celebration, Patriotism, Reward, Sacrifice, Homeland		
“Dulce Et Decorum Est”
by W. Owen 	Blood, Mud, Fatigue, Nightmare, Horror		
“The Glory Of Women” 
by S. Sassoon	Dirt, Danger, Horror, Mud, Blood 	Superficiality, Yearning, Veneration, Naivety, Glory	
“They” 
by S. Sassoon	Change, Horror, Wounds, Blood, Death		
“Last Post”
by C.A. Duffy	Blood, Mud, Death, Role of Poetry, Deprivation		
“In Flanders Fields” 
by J. McCrae	Death, Deprivation, Chaos, Persistence, Carelessness		
“The Fox” 
by D.H. Lawrence	Misery, Harshness, Fruitlessness, Difficulty, Change 	Dependence, Instinctiveness, Emancipation, Ambition, Difficulty 	
“La Grande Guerra A Piedi” 
by N. Giraldi	Mud, Death, Horror, Division, Pain		

APPENDIX II

Perception of The War: 
Recurrence of The Key Words In The Texts (Table)

In the following table the reader can find how many time each Key Word recurs in the texts.

Key Word	Recurrence	
Celebration	x1	
Patriotism	x1	
Reward	x1	
Sacrifice	x1	
Homeland	x1	
Blood	x4	
Mud	x4	
Fatigue	x1	
Nightmare	x1	
Horror	x4	
Dirt	x1	
Danger	x1	
Change	x2	
Wounds	x1	
Death	x4	
Role of Poetry	x1	
Deprivation	x2	
Chaos	x1	
Persistence	x1	
Carelessness	x1	
Misery	x1	
Harshness 	x1	
Fruitlessness	x1	
Difficulty	x1	
Division	x1	
Pain	x1	

APPENDIX III

Recurrence of The Key Words In The Texts (Histogram)

In the following histogram the reader can find how many time each Key Word recurs in the texts.

Synopsis

Considering all the data, the reader can understand that poets mostly have a negative perception of the War. Indeed, the most recurrent words are ‘blood’, ‘mud’, ‘horror’ and ‘death’ that all together evoke the idea of war as an unreasonable fight that obliges soldier to bear difficult living condition in order to survive. 
Interesting to notice is that only Rupert Brooke seems to consider war as something necessary, and dying for the home Country as an honourable action. The reader has to consider that Rupert Brooke didn’t experience war, therefore his poem represents the pre-war idealism common at the time. On the contrary, the other poets and novelists fought in the First World War or at least listened to some soldier’s experiences. 
Therefore, the texts that present the War negatively seem to be the ones that conform to reality more. Indeed, also the language used by the poets confirm this hypothesis: the narrators chooses a very concrete and detailed language (‘blood’ and ‘mud’, are two of the most recurrent key words) that unveils the attempt to present the war in a real manner. 

APPENDIX IV

Perception of The Role of Women:
Recurrence of The Key Words In The Texts (Table)

In the following table the reader can find how many time each Key Word recurs in the texts.

Key Word	Recurrence	
Superficiality 	x1	
Yearning	x1	
Veneration	x1	
Naivety	x1	
Glory	x1	
Dependence 	x1	
Instinctiveness	x1	
Emancipation	x1	
Ambition	x1	
Difficulty	x1	

APPENDIX V

Recurrence of The Key Words In The Texts (Histogram)

In the following histogram the reader can find how many time each Key Word recurs in the texts.

Synopsis

The reader can immediately notice that there are not Key Words repeated in the texts and that not all the texts present a perception of the role of the Women. Indeed, the poets mainly focus their attention on the War and the effect it has on the speaking voice or the soldiers. It goes without saying that, since women used to stay at home during the fight, they weren’t the perfect subject of a war poem. 
Anyway, Sassoon and DH Lawrence decided to reflect on the role Women had during the First World War and presented two different kind of Woman (that’s why there aren’t repeated words). While Sassoon presents women as wives and mothers that try to gain fame through the soldiers’ disgrace, DH Lawrence focuses his attention on two women that want to gain independency and manage a farm all by themselves. 
All in all, the reader can notice that both perceptions of the Women are in some way negative, since Sassoon criticizes her behaviour and Lawrence brings to surface their difficulties.