Tribhuvan University Kathmandu Model College, Bagbazar, Kathmandu Term Paper Yugal Shrestha Prof. Sanjeev Niraula ENG L 554.1 Ideas and Themes in Poetry 18th July, 2019 Exploration of two aspects of war in Lovelace “To Lucasta going to war and Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est” This paper attempts to analyze the two approaches to war in a poem “To Lucasta Going to War” by Richard Lovelace and “ Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen. The first poem shows the appreciation of war on the one hand and the second poem criticizes the war on the next. Although, both of the text is a war poetry, which is the significant development in both British and American poetry after first world war. As the intellectual response of the poet towards war, they differ in their exploration and perspective towards looking war. Richard Lovelace appreciates war and he does so standing on the ground of nationalism and patriotism. In contrast, Wilfred Owen criticizes war standing on the ground of humanity since the critical byproducts of war like death, destruction, murder, violence, bloodshed, anarchy and chaos,etc. Richard lovelace wrote most of his war poems when he was imprisoned and Wilfred Owen wrote most of his war poem during his personal involvement in battlefield during war. For Richard Lovelace the love for nation is greater than a love for an individual in his case, his beloved. However for Wilfred Owen it is completely useless to die for war and waste youth in battlefield. The first poem, “To Lucasta Going to war” by Richard Lovelace is a romanticization of war. He is glorifying war and he encourage the readers to have optimistic feeling towards participating in war. Although, he is directly addressing his beloved with a positive note of returning back with a brutal confession. He is also very much fascinate and eager to join war. He loves war more than his beloved. He is referring to her as a virtuous lady to quote the lines from the poem itself, “Of Thy chaste breast and quiet mind “ and he further adds “To war and arms I fly” stating that he must proceed to war. He even is ready to leave such a virtuous lady and has madly felt in love with his country. Thus, the authorial intention to glorifying supremacy of national love over individual love is found. Richard Lovelace appreciates war and defends war on the ground of nationalism. In this excerpt of enotes editorial "To Lucasta, Going to the Wars", Lovelace depicts war as an honorable mission and thereby gives the following description as, “This depiction of war as an honorable vision can be appreciated in the use of words and images like embracing the tools of war (a sword, a horse, a shield) with a stronger faith. Also, the poetic persona states that he or she loves honour more than the loved one. In this excerpt we appreciate that the speaker states that honour and going to war is more important or more honorable than romantic love”. The picture of battlefield and idealized picture of the soldier presented in the second stanza valorize patriotism since he refers war as a new mistress whom he is supposed to chase like a first foe in the field with holding a sword, a horse and a shield for his protection. The glorification of the various attributes of war, soldiers being an important aspect of war is highlighted in a romantic manner. Glorification of soldiers is the romanticization of war itself. He focuses the attention of the readers towards the duty and responsibility of soldiers during war towards his/her country more than his personal affair and individuality. Time and again, the significance of national and patriotic love for a citizen of a country is highlighted and the involvement in war is appreciated in this poem. With a brutal confession to his beloved (and the readers in general), the writer concludes this poem telling that temporarily it might look that he is being indifferent towards her and his family in general; to quote the lines from the final stanza, “Yet this inconstancy is such” and it is the indication of irresponsibility and unfaithfulness towards her at the present moment but he further adds that she will understand and appreciate his decision of going on war since he is fighting for his nation and he is expression his patriotic feelings for his country. The extract taken from Wikipedia cites ,”One is the narrator chooses honour and feels the excitement of going to war and secondly Lovelace appreciates war especially the fame gained from war and its participation. ”Thus, addressing Lucasta, the writer is expressing his views of appreciation towards war. Therefore, the first poem is romantic war poem. This is the first exploration to war by Richard Lovelace. The second poem, “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, on the other hand adopts the exploration of criticizing and denouncing of war. This poem has the latin title , “Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori” which is derived from the literature of Horace from his famous work Odes which means “it is sweet and right to die for one’s country, sweet ! and decorus”. But the title has a satirical and ironic tone because the contemporary story writer Jessie Pope used to valorize war in his children literary works taking the literature of Horace as a reference as mentioned above. Owen criticizes war and has thus created a point of departure from earlier romantic notion of war. So, Wilfred Owen in order to throw realistic picture of war, the brutality, the horror, the insecurity, the misery and painful experience during war has chosen this title for expressing the uselessness and vainful waste of youth in battlefield. This poem is a first hand experience of the writer since he was too a victim of such traumatic situation of war, being a soldier participating in the front in France. By looking the head notes in most of his poem which mentions, “ My subject is war,especially the terror and horror of war” shows his depiction of real face of war which is a no way any sweet pleasant experience. As stated by a critic Paul Norgate, “Owen Dulce Et Decorum Est images a random and futile death far removed from any meaningful action and whose memory offers no comfort or heroic reassurance”. The writer’s use of horrific imagery shows his attitude towards war. The poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est ” opens with the poet’s comparision of soldiers with old beggars and hags representing the waste of the most productive time of youth in battlefield. They are burdened not only with physical loads but also psychological and emotional loads of traumas where life is uncertain, insecure and threatening moment by moment. The writer uses various horrific imagery like “man marched asleep, limped on bloodshed, all went lame and all blind, drunk with fatigue and deaf even to the hoots”. These all descriptions presents very pathetic, brutal ,violence, bloodshed and finally death and destruction of human life. Everyone seems to be hallucinating as even they have been addictive towards psychedelic drugs and even the very significant life seems to lose its preciousness. The soldiers show indifference to the dangers nearby and in fact they are showing indifference to life as well. The writer points that they are heading towards their distant rest. The denotative meaning might be their camp but in reality they are longing to embrace the eternal sleep that is death since they are extremely exhausted both physically, mentally and have become lifeless. On the ground of humanity they have become inhuman and brutal and indifference shown by the state towards their condition shows the terrible exploration of war. A critic James D.Brophy highlights, “Ironic Horace statement that is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country is not that sweet. In fact the poem is memorable for the terrors of it’s description: of soldiers drowning in green seas of gas , the blood.. gargling from the froth-corrupted tongues.” The poem moves to another brutal situation of “struggle for existence” since the soldiers are flumbing with a sudden attack by mustard gas and they are trying to fix their clumsy helmets (anti gas mask). This visual description of war shows the chaos and hunger for life like the monster hungry to eat other creatures. Meanwhile, one of the co-mate of the writer was unable to fix that helmet and a cloudy vision is seen to him. His friend was yelling, stumbling, floundering like a man in fire and he was helpless to provide any aid to him. This incident created a psychological trauma inside him since “every night in his dreams he started to see his friend plunging at him, guttering, choking and drowning “ as to quote to from the poem. This description of second stanza too shows his criticism towards war. Wilfred Owen finds war to have innumerable negative effects that is excessive loss of humanity. A critic Roland Bartel clarifies, “ Dulce et Decorum Est” is a realistic anti war poem of World War I”. The writer in the final stanza presents terrible picture of war. It is the description of dark aspect of war. The history of all wars in the world is coloured by this darkness either it is first and second world war or other civil wars. The writer’s friend had a terrible death as the Japanese Manga artist Gosho Aoyoma as said, “ What is terrible than death is waiting for death?”. He died a suffocated, painful, miserable death. The writhing eyes, hanging face, froth-corrupted lungs, sore on innocent tongue even it looked devil would be frightened by looking his face. This horrific and brutal description of death leaves the reader in a pensive mood to internalize in there imagination on,” how war is real curse for humanity?, how war is a vainful activity?”. It provokes all sense of readers and they cannot remain untouched with the massive it carries. The writer Wilfred Owen concludes this poem by telling Jessie Pope, Old Horace and other romantic war poems as friends and informs them that if you had seen this terrible, brutal, inhuman and horrific condition of war they would not have so easily narrated war with some desperate glory with an old lie: “Dulce Et Decorum Est; Pro Patria Mori”. Thus, this poem is the criticism and opposition of war. Hence, it is an anti war poem. “ Dulce Et Decorum Est simply exposes it’s title to a flat contradiction in narrative; that is what dying for your country is really like… The only way to stop the ruin of countless bodies is by stopping corruption at it’s verbal source: the old lie, which is why the true poets must be truthful” as justifies by a critic Martin. M. Winkler proves this same fact. In conclusion, the poem “To Lucasta going to war” by Richard Lovelace and the poem, “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen are the interpretations of war poetry although they adopt two different exploration towards war. To restate the thesis of this term paper, the first poem is the glorification and appreciation of war on the foundation of nationalism and patriotism whereas the second poem is the criticism of war on the ground of humanity and by products of war. To generalize the war poety, it can be said that war has got both aspects the positive aspect being the safeguard of nationalism and patriotism and the negative aspect being the destruction and devastation of humanity and human life. Literaure Review: eNotes Editorial, 19 Nov. 2009, https://www.enotes.com/homeworkhelp/what-do-you-think-does-anyone-have-certain-392051. Accessed 20 July 2019. Wikipedia contributors. "Richard Lovelace." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Jul. 2018. Web. 20 Jul. 2019. The Norton anthology of poetry/ [edited by] Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy:-5th edition/ page-63 and 68 Norgate, Paul. “Wilfred Owen and the Soldier Poets.” The Review of English Studies, vol. 40, no. 160, 1989, pp. 516–530. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/517098. Brophy, James D. “The War Poetry of Wilfred Owen and Osbert Sitwell: An Instructive Contrast.” Modern Language Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 1971, pp. 22–29. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3194256. Bartel, Roland. “Teaching Wilfred Owen's War Poems and the Bible.” The English Journal, vol. 61, no. 1, 1972, pp. 36–42. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/812892. Winkler, Martin M. “‘Dulce Et Decorum Est pro Patria Mori?" Classical Literature in the War Film.” International Journal of the Classical Tradition, vol. 7, no. 2, 2000, pp. 177–214. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30222684.
