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THE SONNETEERS of WORLD WAR I Dr Navjyot / Vol. I / Issue – III / 2012 ISSN 2277-8063 THE SONNETEERS OF WORLD WAR I Dr. D. C. Punse Head, Department of English, Amolakchand Mahavidyalaya, Yavatmal. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract : Sonnet is a popular form of poetry. During the First World War many sonneteers have been emerged and contributed a variety of sonnets to English literature. Sonnet has become an established genre. The sonneteers’ sonnets and poetry was first called as ‘ soldiers poetry’ and the term ‘ soldier’s poet’ was used to the sonneteers and poets who were writing on poetry. The poets were writing about their experiences of war. Many poets who were writing on war experiences died on the battlefield. Most famously Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Charles Sorley. Robert H Ross characterized the English ‘ war poets as a sub-group of the Georgian poetry writers. ’ 1 The first important characteristic of ‘war poetry’ is its ‘tone’. It was a kind of revolt in poetry. During the First World War, the anthology ‘ The Muse in Arms’ was published in 1917. All poets included in this anthology were writing in time of war and the subject of war and thus were popularly known as ‘war poets’ . Introduction: Sonnet was originated in Europe mainly in Italy, The form was invented by the Sicilian poet, Giocomo da Lentini. It is a metrical composition of fourteen lines. Originally, a sonnet means ‘ a little song’ or ‘ a little sound’ . Italian (Petrarchan ) sonnet, Octavian Sonnet, English (Shakespearean) Sonnet, Spenserian Sonnet, Miltonic Sonnet, Wordsworthian Sonnet are the main and popular forms of sonnets in English literature. War sonnet is considered as the modern sonnet. Sincerity of sentiments is the chief characteristic of war sonnet. The truth of death clarifies its brevity. E. Albert comments on war poetry : “ There can be no clearer reflection of the changing national attitude toward the conflict as the weary years brought disillusionment than that found in the poetry of these men. Broadly two phases may be distinguished. The first was one of patriotic fervour, almost of rejoicing in the opportunity of self-sacrifice in the cause of human freedom, and revival of romantic conception of the night-at-arms. Many writers, indeed, lived and served throughout the war and preserved unblemished this fervor of the early years. But as the carnage grew more appalling and the end seemed as distant as ever, other poets arose with declared intention of shattering this illusion of the splendor of war by a frankly realistic picture of the suffering brutality, squalor and futility of the struggle.” 2 By 1916 a great change in English society had taken place, a change which was the beginning of the end of the old social system. Prof. Pinto observes : “ There was a growing cleavage between these two nations. The Nation at Home still believed in the patriotic myth of a beautiful, heroic war against diabolic enemies. The Nation overseas was in touch with realities of life and death, and was completely disillusioned with regard to the heroic nature of the struggle. Indeed, as the war went on, they become more and more solidly united in sentiment not against {as it appeared to them) the 38 Navjyot / Vol. I / Issue – III / 2012 ISSN 2277-8063 callous, stupid Nation at Home, the government, and, above all the ‘brass-hats’ of the staff.” 3 In this paper, the assessment of the war poets like- Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Charles Sorley is critically examined. War Poets or Trench Poets : The war poet in this series, Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) lived only twenty-seven years before he was died of blood-poisoning. He was an army officer and was appointed fellow of the Cambridge college. He had mixed with the major political and literary figures of his time. He is best-known today for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War. He was associated with the Bloomsbury group of poets and the Georgian poets. His sonnets have been lauded as being ‘among the supreme expressions of English patriotism and among the few notable poems produced by the great First World War. As a war poet, Rupert Brooke came to public attention in 1915 when The Times Literary Supplement quoted two of his five sonnets, The Dead and The Soldier . He adopted the sonnet to his war experience. He wrote quite a different sonnet than Elizabethan or Shakespearean sonnet. His first famous collection of poetry ‘1914 and Other Poems’ was published in 1915, but soon he died of blood poisoning from an infected mosquito bite. His style of writing the sonnet was quite a different than his contemporary poets. The Georgian Poets wrote in an anti-Victorian style, using rustic themes and subjects such as friendship and love. While critics viewed Rupert Brooke’s poetry as too sentimental and lacking depth. But all of his sonnets captured the mood in England during the years leading up to World War I. Brooke’s death brought sadness in England and his death became a symbol in England of the tragic loss of talented youth during the war. In his best-known sonnet The Soldier , he prompted : If I should die, think only this of me: That there is some corner of a foreign field That is forever 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 always to roam, These lines are uploaded with high-spirited patriotism. Brooke’s realism is apparent in these lines. There are strongly forceful lines bringing robust and penetrative imagination. He was a man of youthful imagination and enthusiasm. His experiences are thrilling and some of his experiences pulsates through his poetry. Because of his sonnets he became a sign and symbol of his age. As he wrote in ‘ The Dead’ : These hearts were of human joys and cares, Washed marvelously with sorrow, swift to mirth. The years had given them kindness, Dawn was theirs, And sunset, and the colours of the earth. “In the tragic stress of the early months of the World War I, the English nation needed a human symbol to keep attention fixed upon the professed idealist aims for which it had been led into battle. After eight months such a symbol was revealed in the dead poet, 39 Navjyot / Vol. I / Issue – III / 2012 ISSN 2277-8063 Rupert Brooke – remembered not as a figure of death, but as he was while alive, young, quick, eager, and golden-haired Apollo. ” 4 The critics commented on his poetry as a ‘poetry of ecstatic enthusiasm and suicidal doubt’ because he was a deeply confused personality. He was a witness at the siege of Antwerp before writing his famous set of five sonnets 1914 and Other Sonnets . His sonnets are not the sonnets of great masters like Shakespeare, Petrarch, Milton, or Wordsworth but there are numerous marks of great poetry. He saw the world with a clear eye and recorded what he saw with directness and clarity. His poetry was published in Poems (1911); 1914 and Other Poems (1915); and Collected Poems (1918). His Peace , the first of his sonnets in the 1914 and Other Poems has an octave and sestet. It glorified England and the idea of dying for England one might think that Brooke was very keen to fight and die for his country. His lack of commitment to people and causes is reflected in Peace . His The Soldier , The Dead , A Channel Passage all these are written in the same pattern of Octave and Sestet . His contribution to English poetry especially of War Poetry is unforgettable and remarkable. The other great sonneteer of World War I is Wilfred Owen (1893-1918). He is considered as the greatest writer of war poetry in the English language. He was greatly impressed by John Keats and P B Shelley. From the age of nineteen he wanted to become a poet and immersed himself in poetry. He began to write poetry but he wrote almost no poetry of importance until he saw action in France in 1917. He joined Armed Services and served as an infantry officer from 1915 until his death. He met Siegfried Sassoon and that meeting changed his life and changed the course of his poetry. His experiences of the trenches had brought him rapidly to maturity. He set out to present the whole reality of war- the boredom, the hopelessness, the futility, the horror, occasionally the courage and self-sacrifice and pity of war. He himself wrote: “I’m not concerned with poetry. My subject is war, and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity.” He made excellent experiments in writing poetry. Not only experiments but he ceaselessly experimented in verse techniques. He is the most precisely descriptive and technically innovative of all World War poets. On Seeing a Piece of Our Heavy Artillery Brought into Action is his remarkable sonnet . Be slowly lifted up, thou long black arm, Great Gun towering towards Heaven, about to curse; Sway sweep against them, and for years rehearse Huge imprecations like a blasting charm ! These lines show very clearly his innovative charm. This sonnet is written in Octave and sestet pattern observing a b b a rhyme scheme. He brought out a psychological change in his attitude as well as in his personality. Anthem for Doomed Youth, The End, Sonnet to My Friend-With an Identity Disc are his famous war sonnets. All these sonnets are full of horrors of war but written with utter care and beauty. His last known poem Smile Smile Smile starkly illustrates his mature style with turning of daydreams 40 Navjyot / Vol.
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