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.

THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE by Carol Ann Duffy
Reading the title, the reader immediately thinks about the Christmas truce the soldiers made on Christmas 1914. Therefore, the reader supposes that the poem will deal with the First World War, and in particular with a positive episode of it. So he/she can also suppose that the poem will probably bring to surface this event in order to criticize the war.
Reading the poem, the reader’s conjectures are confirmed. Indeed the poet chooses to highlight the negativity of war also while she is speaking about the Christmas Truce. References to death, mud, cold and distance invade the whole poem: the reader can find words like “dead”, “liquid mud”, “falling shells”, “enemies”, “grim tranches”, “graves”. At the same time, the horrors of war are reinforced by the juxtaposition of scenes of joy and peace and references to the difficult conditions soldiers have to bear.
Indeed, considering the structure of the poem the reader can find out that while the first seven stanzas mainly deal with the difficult condition of war, from the eighth stanza the reader can record an alternation of dialogues, songs and references to gifts and games due to the Christmas Truce and references to what war really meant.
In order to highlight the critic against the war, the poet adopts other two strategies. First of all she criticize the war comparing (indirectly) it to the daily life, which is evoked through dishes (“sausages”, “sauerkraut”..), drinks (“cognac”, “beer”..), and pastime (“cigars”, “football”..). Secondly, she brings to surface the human side that combines both English and German soldiers, so that war seems to be something extremely negative since it give all soldiers a hard time. In order to do that, the poet makes a list of some soldiers using their proper names (soldiers gain an identity); she quotes typical Christmas carols; she translates the dialogues also in German (therefore English and German soldier are equally important); she underlines the same condition of mortals and, last but not least, she places near epithets like “foe” and “enemies”, words like “men”, “lad” and even “friend”.
All in all, the reader can find out that the poem is an anti-war poet; more in particular it seems to be a reflection on why war should be avoided since it presents positively the only episode of humanity, joy and hope of the conflict. Therefore, the poet wants to educate and sensitise people in order to make them realize how destructive war is for all human beings.