War Poets
Brevi annotazioni in lingua inglese sui poeti di guerra Rupert Brooke e Wilfred Owen (1 pagine formato doc)
When
the First World War broke out thousands of young men volunteered for
military service.
Almost from the beginning the common soldiers improvised verses which did not reach the literate people living comfortably at home. However, there was a group of poets who actually experienced the fighting and in most cases lost their lives in the conflict. These poets managed to represent modern warfare in a realistic and unconventional way and to awaken a conscience of the readers to the horrors of the war. They are known as ‘The War Poets' and their poetry can be considered modern because its subject matter could not be conveyed in the 19th century poetic conventions and forced them to find new modes of expression.
After the slaughter on
the Somme in 1916 their enthusiasm and pride was replaced by doubt
and disillusionment. For the soldiers, life in the trenches was hell
because of the rain and mud, the decaying bodies, the repeated
bombings and the use of poison gas in warfare.
Almost from the beginning the common soldiers improvised verses which did not reach the literate people living comfortably at home. However, there was a group of poets who actually experienced the fighting and in most cases lost their lives in the conflict. These poets managed to represent modern warfare in a realistic and unconventional way and to awaken a conscience of the readers to the horrors of the war. They are known as ‘The War Poets' and their poetry can be considered modern because its subject matter could not be conveyed in the 19th century poetic conventions and forced them to find new modes of expression.