War Poetry | hiroispoo

The Trumpet

By Thomas Edward

Rise up, rise up,

And, as the trumpet blowing

Chases the dreams of men,

As the dawn glowing

The stars that left unlit

The land and water,

Rise up and scatter

The dew that covers

The print of last night’s lovers—

Scatter it, scatter it!

While you are listening

To the clear horn,

Forget, men, everything

On this earth newborn,

Except that it is lovelier

Than any mysteries.

Open your eyes to the air

That has washed the eyes of the stars

Through all the dewy night:

Up with the light,

To the old wars;

Arise, arise!

Theme: The theme of this poem is basically the end to war. Forget what happened, welcome to this new earth we are here on. It’s as if the title of the poem was calling me.

Structure: Constructed with 2 stanzas, 10 - 12. There is an easily noticeable rhyme scheme integrated within this poem. Although it is not consistent, it is easily heard.

Literary Devices: There are a few literary devices used inside of this poem. The first one I spotted was “Through all the dewy night:” (Line 19), an amplification used to strengthen the word night. Also, pretty much this entire poem includes imagery, almost every line showing an image as the reader progresses.

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The Brass

By Hirotsugu Ishii

Gear up, gear up,

As the soldiers start morning

Gathering their gear

As the sun starts rising

The soldiers spread around camp

The land and warfare

Shall we take care,

We then cover

As we discover

Run, run!

While you are aiming

To see through the sight,

You see the people fading

As you see the bright light,

Everything you know,

Will be crushed in hopes,

The slow, slow,

Dreams that you dreamed upon

Throughout the lonely night

Then you see the sight,

Of the people you love

To the battlefield,

Cover, cover

ESSAY:

The poem I read, The Trumpet, by Edward Thomas is themed upon the aftermath of war. And how we can see the good side of war. The poem I wrote, The Brass, the before and during of the war is using some of the literary devices used in, The Trumpet. We all know that Brass comes before the Trumpet, so that is where the title came from.

The Trumpet was based on the aftermath, but The Brass is based on what is happening during and before war. We see a perspective on the aftermath of war, but hopefully with my poem, it shows a new perspective on the beforehand of war. As the poem The Trumpet is spreading good words, The Brass on the other hand, is some what negative in comparison to The Trumpet.

I followed almost the exact route that The Trumpet took. Using similar literary devices, imagery and amplification, two commonly found and used devices. I also followed the exact same stanza format. Ten, and Twelve. With that being said, the rhyme pattern that is somewhat awkward is also used. The first stanza of The Trumpet is showing some sort of a new world. And for the second stanza, we see how we can come out of the war positively. In The Brass, We see the war scene in the first stanza, and in the second, we see what is happening to the soldier in his mind.

Poems are a great way to learn. They can be like a math problem, you must solve it to find the meaning, some are easy, and some are incredibly hard. Throughout the unit of war, I learned new things of war. Poetry being a huge part. War poems are very well thought out. With such short, fun reading, we can learn a lot. Poems also include many features that other writings can’t include. Feelings, Emotions. Poetry is excellent at doing this.