Exploring the Atmosphere of Boer War in Poetry
Thomas write his poem “The Man He Killed” at the time of the second Boer War (1899-1902), following by the poem “Channel Firing” right out before outbreak of World Warl. Through his words raised in his work, it’s seems that he want to show the pointless of war and how it’s illogical crime.In deeply way Thomas put the picture of those soldiers who forced to kill, to destroy their enemies or rather heir friends for the some of them. A soldier recall, “ But ranged as infantry, / And staring face to face, / I shot at him as he at me” (“The Man He killed” 5-7), this disturbed words appear a toughest moment for a man had experienced killing his friend who had shared him a drink, in sense of brotherhood. And this is enough to show pain, feel of guiltiest that the soldier had. Moving to ‘Channel Firing’ where also Thomas had an anti war personality by using a group of imagery and symbols that reveal to the terrifying that war put it in the souls, for example, an unexpected speaker were corpses who recall, “(We thought it was the judgment-day/ And sat upright” ( “Channel Firing” 4-5), that refer to the great noise of the gunfire that makes even the dead people wake up from the eternal rest.
In “Dulce et Decorum Est”, Wilfred Owen employed his reality to situate the reader in the atmosphere of war, as he was a witness on the scenes of dying in a gas raid and others petrified things. The poet bring back a memory here, “ But someone still was yelling out and stumbling/ And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime” ( “Dulce et Decorum Est” 11-12), this an awful memory of a man “yelling” and “stumbling” because of Gas, and the worst thing that Wilfred was a helpless in saving him. Another scene of brutality of war when Wilfred gave an image of suffering of soldiers, he said ‘Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, /Knock-Kneed, coughing like hags’ (‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ 1-2), here he describe the depriving of dignity and health of those soldiers like the elderly or homeless begging for living and he compares them with ugly women because they have lost their potency and youth. Thus Thomas Hardy and Wilfred Owen have affiliate the same idea of senseless of war, their anti-war poems was very powerful in telling the public the tragedy of war and what is really was like.
