An Irish Airman Foresees His Death by W. B. Yeats

I know that I shall meet my fate

Somewhere among the clouds above;

Those that I fight I do not hate,

Those that I guard I do not love;

My country is Kiltartan's cross,

My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,

No likely end could bring them loss

Or leave them happier than before.

Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,

Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,

A lonely impulse of delight

Drove to this tumult in the clouds;

I balanced all, brought all to mind,

The years to come seemed waste of breath,

A waste of breath the years behind

In balance with this life, this death.

Survivors by Alan Ross

With the ship burning in their eyes

The white faces float like refuse

In the darkness - the water screwing

Oily circles where the hot steel lies.

They clutch with fingers frozen into claws

The lifebelts thrown from a destroyer,

And see, between the future's doors,

The gasping entrance of the sea.

Taken on board as many as lived, who

Had a mind left for living and the ocean,

They open eyes running with surf,

Heavy with the grey ghosts of explosion.

The meaning is not yet clear,

Where daybreak died in the smile -

And the mouth remained stiff

And grinning, stupid for a while.

But soon they joke, easy and warm,

As men will who have died once

Yet somehow were able to find their way -

Muttering this was not included in their pay.

Later, sleepless at night, the brain spinning

With cracked images, they won't forget

The confusion and the oily dead,

Nor yet the casual knack of living.

This poem consists of six stanzas of four lines each. There is rhyme in the poem, but it doesn't seem to be structured - for example in the first stanza the first and last lines rhyme, in the second none rhyme and in the third the second and fourth lines rhyme. There is simile, as in the second line of the first stanza, where the dead faces floating in the water are compared to the bits of the destroyed ship. Metaphor is used abundantly in this poem - for example, in the first line of the first stanza and the third line of the second stanza. There is also personification used in lines 3-4 of the first stanza, where the water is described as "screwing oily circles". The poem is describing a ship being blown up and what happened to the survivors. From other projects and research I've done (in socials mostly), it seems a very accurate portrayal. The poem is very believable and I find I can relate to the author's descriptions of how the survivors feel after being rescued. The metaphors especially in this poem add a lot to the impact of the poem, because they help the reader to understand what the survivors are going through - something which would be difficult to do using literal language.

The Enemy by Bettina Wegner (translated from German by Agnes Stein)

The moon had a courtyard

into which they shoved cannons.

The sun had a light

of which they made torches.

The field was filled with corn

of which they made scrap.

The night had a coat

from which they cut camouflage.

The man had a fist

of which they made bombs.

The woman had a lap

which they named a tavern.

The children had clear vision

they knew their enemy

and made use of everything.

This poem contains two stanzas of six lines each and one of three at the end. There is no rhyme to the poem (which may be because it was translated from another language), but there is a definite structure to the poem. Every second line of the first two stanzas starts with "The ___ had a ___", and then the next line goes on to describe how that particular thing was used. However, it was not used in a a literal sense - the entire poem is comprised of metaphors, which obviously could not be true but get the point across that everything and anything was used to the advantage of whoever the subject of the story is. It sounds to me like the story is talking about soldiers who are occupying a town. There is also personification used, such as in the first lines of the first and second stanzas, where objects are referred to as possessing something. This helps to make the metaphors used understandable to the reader.

Epigram

Warriors were horsemen, glimmering on parade.

Glory their object, bravery’d soon fade.

As epigrams are only two lines, they don't require titles. The object of this poem is to show scorn for the warriors of old, who, as the poem indicates, were often much more concerned with the glory and praise they received than with actual fighting. In my opinion, war was very much romanticized in the days of knights and swords and the warriors of that day saw nothing compared to the soldiers of modern wars. Back in that time, being a warrior was a great thing that many aspired to, whereas during real wars in this age, few people are eager to enter battle. A bit of imagery is used in "glimmering on parade", which attempts to illustrate the life of a knight as being very glorified.

One by Metallica

I can't remember anything
Can't tell if this is true or dream
Deep down inside I feel the scream
This terrible silence stops it there

Now that the war is through with me
I'm waking up, I cannot see
That there's not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god, help me

Back in the womb it's much too real
In pumps life that I must feel
But can't look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I'll live

Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god, wake me

Now the world is gone I'm just one
Oh god, help me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god, help me

Darkness imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell

Landmine has taken my sight
Taken my speech
Taken my hearing
Taken my arms
Taken my legs
Taken my soul
Left me with life in hell

This song is from 1988 and is off Metallica's album "...And Justice For All". It is about a soldier who was injured by a landmine during a war (the music video shows it to be World War II) and it has "taken" his sight, speech, hearing, limbs and soul. He is kept alive by breathing and feeding machines, and feels trapped within his body, in a kind of living death. He cannot move or speak, and constantly wishes for death to come, which his doctors won't grant him. The song was inspired by anti-war films, and the music video is composed partly of such films. Structurally, there are four verses of four lines each as well as four two-line choruses. At the end of the song there are two seven-line stanzas which contain listing in the fourth and fifth lines of the first of these stanzas and the second to sixth of the second of them. The rhyme scheme for each verse is AAAB, with the exception of the first one in which only the second and third lines rhyme. Personification is used several times, such as in the last line of the first verse and the first line of the last stanza. He refers to a landmine as taking things away from him, which makes it seem as though he is bitter and resentful about the war and angry about what it did to him. Repetition is also used in the chorus, which hammers home the fact that he is unhappy in his current state and wants to be free of his life, so to speak.

Grenade

This is a shape poem that I drew by hand, and I would first off like to apologize for the messy writing. It contains no rhyme scheme. I used personification by saying the grenade has been waiting to put on a show. There is also contrast between the horror caused by the grenade and the entertaining, almost glamorous sounding "show" that it wants to put on. I wrote it this way because one wouldn't normally think of an explosion as being a show, especially not an explosion that is killing people. I think it is an interesting alternative point of view. The poem doesn't contain any kind of punctuation or grammar and words are cut off and continue on the next line, so I hope you are able to understand it.

Stanzas by Lord George Gordon Byron

When a man hath no freedom to fight for a home,

Let him combat for that of his neighbours;

Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome,

And get knocked on the head for his labours.

To do good to mankind is the chivalrous plan,

And is always as nobly requited;

Then battle for freedom wherever you can,

And, if not shot or hanged, you'll get knighted.

This poem ties in with my theme because it refers to battles fought and won in Greece and Rome, and says that if you fight for your country you will be rewarded. This style of warfare (of being chivalrous and getting knighted) is very different from most of the wars we hear about today and has much more to do with honour and glory than just killing, as it is today. Structurally there are two stanzas of four lines each, with the first and third, and second and fourth lines rhyming. The poem has historical allusions, in talking about the glories of Greece and Rome; this could refer to any number of battles that took place there, as there had been many previous to Lord Byron's lifetime. However, since there had been so many the cities were claimed repeatedly by different people, which would explain why he would "get knocked on the head for his labours" (he wouldn't enjoy its glories for long). In addition, the last two lines sound slightly satirical, as though you don't have much of a chance of being rewarded. This gives the poem a joking tone and makes the reader question the sincerity of the first two lines of the second stanza.

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

"In Flanders Fields" is perhaps the most famous war poem ever written. It was written during World War 1, in 1915, the day after McCrae witnessed the death of his close friend. It is often recited during Rememberance Day ceremonies because it refers to the poppies that grew in abundance in the battlefields and cemeteries where war casualties were buried. There is repetition in the poem in the first and last lines, in the second line with "row on row", and in the third line of the 2nd stanza with "loved, and were loved". A lark singing, in line 4, is an example of personification. There is alliteration in the 3rd line of the 3rd stanza, with "hold it high". Structurally, the poem is a French rondeau, which has 15 lines and 3 stanzas, with rhyme scheme AABBA, AABC, AABBAC.

Haiku

Ceaseless bombardment

Incessant deafening noise

This cratered wasteland

This poem was purposely left title-less, as is intended with haikus. The poem has a very strict structure, as the number of syllables per line is 5, 7, 5. One thing I tried to portray here is how frustrating and even maddening it was for the soldiers on the front lines during World War 1 - they despaired because it seemed as though the assaults and explosions would never end. Also, many soldiers went deaf or lost part of their hearing from the noise of explosions. I didn't use any poetic devices, as they are kind of difficult to implement into such a short poem.