Tag: War
-
Warmongers (Dylan Thomas)
Here is a Dylan Thomas poem that’s, in essence, simple and straightforward. It was written in the mid 1930s, with memories of WW I still fresh, and tensions already building towards WW II. In 1934, Thomas wrote a newspaper article is which he said that “war is a capitalist machine utilised for the benefit of…
-
Holy Spring (Dylan Thomas)
Sometimes, when people first read through a Dylan Thomas poem, they say, ‘What on earth is he on about?” And there are times when he reminds me of someone who needs to get so much in, that he crams his suitcase close to bursting point; or reminds me of Einstein’s e=mc2 equation, which compresses an…
-
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Wilfred Owen said of his poetry, “My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.” Pity is defined by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as “tenderness and concern aroused by the suffering or misfortune of another.” The poem is technically a sonnet. Eight lines lines are followed, with a…
-
“Everyone Sang” – A Religious Poem?
Siegfried Sassoon had a Jewish father, and an Anglican mother, and was a convert to Roman Catholicism. This rather enigmatic poem was written just after the end of World War II, in which he served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Some have therefore understood it as describing an outburst of joy in response to the…
RAY'S VIEWS ONLINE 