LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 20:12 December 2020
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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English Soldier-Poets of the First World War
With Special Reference to Wilfred Owen

Dr. H. Shimreingam

Abstract

The Military Service Act of 1916 of the United Kingdom required every unmarried man of military age to enlist at once or attest at once under the Group System and if he does neither, a third course awaits him; he will be deemed to have enlisted under the Military Service Act. The present work talks about the writings of the young English soldier-poets who fought during the First World War and who expressed what they saw and felt on the Western Front. And to see their feelings and sentiment the paper discusses some of the major poets of First World War: Rupert Brooke, Edmund Blunden, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, and Wilfred Owen who left great influence on younger poets of his age and the succeeding poets of the Second World War looked upon him for an inspiration as he had expressed the sense of indignation and pity of war so fully in his works.

Keywords: Poets, First World War, Self-dedication, homesick regrets, Rupert Brooke, Edmund Blunden, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, Wilfred Owen.

Introduction

War is terrible. Yet every male child is crazy after military uniform, the gun and the gun fire. And every male child wants to be a soldier when he grows up. But. in reality, a soldier’s life is not as exciting as it appears to be. The present work deals with the writing of the young English soldier poets who fought during the First World War and who expressed what they saw and felt on the Western Front. The ordinary educated Englishmen went to war along with the professional soldiers but, unlike the professional soldiers who were steeled by the unquestioning spirit of discipline and obedience, they became acutely sensitive and vulnerable to the brutality of war. Moreover, they were inclined to express their thoughts and feelings in verse. During the war years, that is, between 1914 and 1918, hundreds of war poets saw their work in print.

The Military Service Act of 1916 required every unmarried man of military age to choose one of the two courses:
(1) He can enlist at once.
(2) He can attest at once under the Group System and if he does neither, a third course awaits him; he will be deemed to have enlisted under the Military Service Act.

John Lehmann (1982) has observed “Napoleonic war was fought by professional armies as was the Crimean War. The first major modern war in which educated civilians were involved was the American Civil War, but no Englishmen were involved, or at any rate no articulate Englishmen.” (p.7)

It was the first war in which ordinary educated English civilians took part either by voluntary enlistment or later conscription.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. H. Shimreingam
Assistant Professor of English
Pettigrew College, Ukhrul (Manipur, India)
hungyoshimreingam@gmail.com
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