Thinking Activity- War Poetry

 This blog is in response to the thinking Activity given by Megha Trivedi Ma’am on the topic of War poetry at the Department of English, MKBU.

War poetry

Poets have written about war for a long time, but during World War I, soldiers started writing poems to express their strong emotions. Poets like Owen, Rosenberg, and Sassoon became famous for their war poetry. Not only soldiers, but civilians caught up in conflict have also written war poetry, like Vallejo and Auden in the Spanish Civil War.

During World War II, almost every poet was affected by the war, but not all wrote about it. War poetry is not always against war, but it talks about important things like identity, loyalty, courage, and death. War poetry is important because it talks about national and international crises and helps us understand how people feel about war.

Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) was an English poet and writer known for his early, idealistic poems that celebrated the beauty of youth, love, and nature. Brooke was part of a group of young writers and artists who lived and worked in the bohemian community of Edwardian England. He attended Cambridge University, where he was a member of the Fabian Society and the Bloomsbury Group, two influential intellectual and artistic movements of the time.

Brooke's poetry gained widespread popularity during World War I, when his patriotic and romantic poems inspired a generation of young men to join the British army and fight for their country. In 1915, Brooke himself joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and was sent to the Eastern Mediterranean, where he died of sepsis on board a troop ship before he could see combat.

Rupert Brooke is often considered one of the leading war poets of World War I. His poetry, which was written before the outbreak of the war, celebrated the beauty and vitality of youth and nature, but his work took on a more somber and patriotic tone after he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1914. His war poetry reflects his belief in the nobility and honor of war, and his poems inspired many young men to enlist in the military and fight for their country.

Brooke's most famous war poem is "The Soldier," which was published in 1915 and quickly became an iconic representation of the British war effort. The poem expresses a sense of patriotic duty and sacrifice, and it presents the idea of dying for one's country as a noble and honorable act. 

"The Soldier" by Rupert Brooke

If I should die, think only this of me:

      That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

      In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

      Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;

A body of England’s, breathing English air,

      Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

      A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

            Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

      And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

            In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

This poem The Soldier is all about Patriotism.  "The Soldier" is a poem about a soldier who is willing to die for his country. The soldier believes that even though he may be buried in a foreign land, his soul will always belong to England. He talks about how beautiful England is and how it is worth dying for. The soldier is content knowing that he gave his life for his country. The poem expresses the idea that dying for one's country is a noble and honorable act. This poem gives voice to the words of soldier that,

“ If I should die, think only this of me:

That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England.”

In this lines we can understand that the soldier is proud to be an English soldier and even in sacrificing his life he feels glory for his country. The same type of sentiments we can find in the movie “Shershaah” a biographical movie released in the year 2021.

 The film is based on the life of Captain Vikram Batra, an Indian Army officer who was martyred in the Kargil War in 1999.

The film stars Sidharth Malhotra in a double role, as both Captain Vikram Batra and his twin brother Vishal Batra. Kiara Advani plays the female lead role of Dimple Cheema, Vikram Batra's fiancée.

The film showcases the life and military career of Captain Vikram Batra, who fought bravely in the Kargil War and was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military honor.

In that movie the protagonist Vikram Batra who fights for his country and eventually gives his life for the sake of national pride. If we compare the poem in the movie he speaks a dialogue that is, “Tiranga lehra ke aaoonga, nahi toh us mein lipat kar aaoonga, lekin aaoonga zaroor!” the same spirit is in the poem’s very first line.

The whole poems theme of pride in sacrificing life for the nation and patriotism is covered in the dialogue that he says,

“Yeh dil maange more!”