Anti-War

In this poem, Small Pain in My Chest, the poet has told the agony of a dying soldier on the battlefield. The poem does
not describe his action but the consequences of a war and the effects on the lives of the soldiers. Small Pain in My
Chest is based on the Vietnam War, a prolonged struggle which began in 1955
The poem is about the sorrows and feeling of the victims as well as the personal torments of the narrator. The poem
also symbolizes that not only the victims but the whole human race was affected. In the poem by Michael Mack, at
the end, when the narrator holds the dying soldier near to him, their wounds get pressed. The narrator has the larger
wound. The larger wound symbolizes the greater guilt on the part of humanity at not being able to give up wars.
Vikram Seth's poem "A Doctor's Journal Entry" depicts the aftermath of an atomic bomb explosion, Vikram Seth helps
us create a mental image of how people were walking around, lifeless and emotionless, totally dumbstruck after the
attack
The entry Journal Entry for August 6, 1945 gives the readers, a vivid picture of how people were bewildered when the
atomic Bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima in 1945 during the Second World War
The poem shows the pain suffered by the soldiers in a war. It also portrays the human spirits in times of war and
crisis.

Small Pain in My Chest is also a symbolic poem. The soldier asks for a sip of water which symbolizes that he is
asking for some understanding and concern for the human being who is suffering for no fault of his due to the war,
which is actually a war between governments, not people. The soldier looks around for some help but he finds
nothing other than craters in the earth, symbolizing the relics of destruction caused due to the war. He has been
fighting for day and night without cause. He is fatigued and then goes for his eternal rest.

At the start of the First World War in 1914, Rupert Brooke was assigned to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He
saw action at Antwerp which inspired the writing of five passionately patriotic sonnets.
Sassoon is a key figure in the study of the poetry of the Great War: he brought with him to the war the idyllic pastoral
background; he began by writing war poetry reminiscent of Rupert Brooke; he mingled with such war poets as Robert
Graves and Edmund Blunden; he spoke out publicly against the war (and yet returned to it); he influenced and
mentored the then unknown Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owens poetry owes its beauty to a deep ingrained sense of compassion coupled with grim realism. Owen is
also acknowledged as a technically accomplished poet and master of metrical variety.
Poems such as 'Dulce Decorum Est' and 'Anthem for doomed Youth' have done much to influence our attitudes
towards war.

He displayed courage and calm under fire, receiving a Military Cross for his actions during a raiding
party in May 1916; in fact he displayed such bravery that he attracted the nickname 'Mad Jack'
During his recovery period, discouraged by the politics of war at home and the deaths of numerous
friends at the front

Siegfried Sassoon is best remembered for his angry and compassionate poems of the First World War, which brought
him public and critical acclaim. Avoiding the sentimentality and jingoism of many war poets, Sassoon wrote of the
horror and brutality of trench warfare and contemptuously satirized generals, politicians, and churchmen for their
incompetence and blind support of the war.

He wrote out of his intense personal experience as a soldier and wrote with unrivalled power of the physical, moral
and psychological trauma of the First World War. All of his great war poems on which his reputation rests were
written in a mere fifteen months.
He wrote home to his mother, "I can see no excuse for deceiving you about these last four days. I have suffered
seventh hell.He wrote home to his mother, "I can see no excuse for deceiving you about these last four days. I have
suffered seventh hell.
"All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true poet must be truthful."

As a captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers he met and became a friend of Robert Graves. He became wildly angry at
the death of one of his friends and fought recklessly, winning the Military Cross. He was wounded in the shoulder and
later was shot in the head accidentally by one of his own men. The wound was a graze, but serious enough to put
him out of the action for good from July 1918.
It was when convalescing from his shoulder wound in the summer of 1917 that he made his famous protest about the
war. As a result of this he was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh. There he met and encouraged
Wilfred Owen with his poetry.
He began to feel guilty about not fighting alongside his old comrades and returned to active service in November
1917.
After the war he became literary editor of the Herald, returned to his country pursuits and wrote a number of
autobiographical books. He married and had one son. He became a Roman Catholic in 1957.
Second only to Owen as a war poet, he recorded the war and his developing responses with uncompromising
honesty.
Thirty three of his war poems are to be found in Minds at War, twenty-seven in Out in the Dark.













14 matches from http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/biogs99.htm
14 matches from http://anudevi.blogspot.com/
4 matches from http://www.citelighter.com/literature/english/knowledgecards/siegfried-sassoon
3 matches from http://www.poemhunter.com/wilfred-owen/biography/
3 matches from http://www.netpoets.com/classic/biographies/048000.htm
3 matches from http://www.poemsclub.com/author/wilfred-owen
2 matches from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171921
2 matches from http://zocalopoets.com/2013/11/11/poems-for-remembrance-day-siegfried-sassoon-el-soldado-sincero-y-amargo-la-poesia-de-siegfried-sassoon/
2 matches from http://zocalopoets.com/category/poets-poetas/siegfried-sassoon/
2 matches from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171928
2 matches from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171922
2 matches from http://www.biblioteksvagten.dk/svar.asp?qaid=24043
2 matches from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/siegfried-sassoon
2 matches from http://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/the-voices-of-world-war-i-english-literature-essay.php
2 matches from http://www.poemhunter.com/rupert-brooke/biography/
2 matches from http://www.netpoets.com/classic/biographies/007000.htm
2 matches from http://www.poemsclub.com/author/rupert-brooke
? matches from http://www.poemhunter.com/i/ebooks/pdf/wilfred_owen_2004_9.pdf