Route March Rest by Vernon Scannell, Night Raid by Desmond Hawkins, :: English Literature

Route March Rest by Vernon Scannell, Night Raid by Desmond Hawkins, The Battle by Louis Simpson - How do the poets take emotional or moving responses to war?What do these poems tell us about wartime life and the thoughts andfeelings of civilians and soldiers?How do the poets communicate emotional or moving responses to war?The following essay leave try to answer the question above. Usingreferences and quotes from three wartime poems I will explain whatthey tell us about wartime life and the thoughts and feelings ofcivilians and soldiers. I will also clarify how the poets communicateemotional and moving responses to the disturbing war. The three poemsthat will be analysed are Route March Rest - by Vernon Scannell, Night Raid - by Desmond Hawkins, The Battle - by Louis Simpson.I have selected these poems because they contain both proportion andcontrast. These aspects are important in order to produce ahigh-quality essay as they provide a more balanced view of the poems.Both the con trasts and similarities will be shown to give the reader aclearer overview of the poems.The three poems, as mentioned above, have all been written duringwartime and therefore display hatred towards the fighting. However,they demonstrate this dislike apply different methods. VernonScannells technique in Route March Rest is important as he usescontrasting images and descriptions to create an overall picture ofdeath and dismay. Scannell does this by initially introducing a sceneof harshness use such tough words as skulls, thumping,crunched and clanked. He then smoothes the picture out by creatinga more calmed and restful atmosphere using such soft words as silent,cool and bright as buttercups. But this is short lived as themarching image is reintroduced and the word die is placed at theend. Desmond Hawkins technique in Night Raid is very unique as it isdone using completely free verses. At the start, strange charactersare introduced which immediately creates anxiety. Harsh sentences suchas If theres a bomb made for YOU, Youre going to get it spotlightthe feelings of distress and misery present in all of the variouspeople. War is also displayed negatively using this sentence She wasshivering and laughing and throwing her head back off. People would notnormally be doing this and so it makes the reader link disease-likebehaviour with war. Louis Simpsons technique in The Battle isfascinating as he uses repetition, onomatopoeia, step and colours toproduce an anti-war description. The three poems are similar as theyare all about the negative aspects of war, but they differ in terms of