Tag Archives: poetry reflection assignment

Praematuri Read, Record, Reflect – Elijah Curtis

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mh7fT4n8OuN7dpm1pDYN4Nhd5I2WPn6L/view?usp=sharing

I chose this poem because its primary focus is the aspect of WWI that resonated most with me through this class. All of our texts have dealt with the loss of life, specifically the mass loss of youth through death or trauma. This poem resonated with me especially because it draws back to a topic we’ve discussed many times and rarely agreed on; after being subjected to an indescribably violent and traumatic experience such as participating in the war, is death a mercy or tragedy? I’ve gone back and forth, though I don’t think the answer is as simple as choosing one or the other. I’m no stranger to witnessing violence, but this class has educated me on the extent of depravity that humans are capable of. Every single death is a tragedy, more so when it’s the result of a conflict whose conflicting parties don’t wish to fight each other. However, I still believe that death can be a merciful release from someone’s individual perspective. None of those young people deserved to die, but when someone loses all of their friends and mental stability, I feel it is unfair to force them to continue living a life that has not/may not ever improved. This poem was an appropriate choice for me to finish this semester because it emphasizes the futility and needlessness of the 40 million casualties and up to 20 million deaths of the young men and women who did not deserve to die, but still could have come away wishing they did.

Ezra’s rendition of Wilfred Owen’s ‘Disabled’

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For this project, I picked Wilfred Owen’s poem Disabled. At first, I thought I was going to do his Anthem for Doomed Youth, because that one has always spoken to me, but in thinking about how my perspective of World War One has changed over the course of taking this class, I thought Disabled spoke to me more. The primary reason is that my own health and ability status has changed over the past year, though obviously not due to war, so I could relate to the speaker. He thinks about the past things he used to be able to do and can do no more, which is relatable as someone who found that my own developing disability has limited some things I can do that I used to be able to do with no limitations. As well, the speaker of this poem seems to me to have an undercurrent of anger at the pity he’s receiving from others now that he’s disabled instead of the healthy, attractive young man he used to be. I can also relate to that– for example, I started using a cane as a crucial mobility aid for the first time this semester, and, while I know they had the best intentions, the pity and occasional condescension I received from people asking about why I was using it or even praising me for getting an accessibility aid, made me quite mad at times. So, overall, I found the speaker of Disabled’s perspective really spoke to me based on my own disability status and changes in that status over the course of the past semester, changes which coincided with learning more about the experience of WWI soldiers and veterans.

Hannah’s Poetry Reflection on Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce Et Decorum Est”

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I first read this poem during a WWI poetry unit in the eleventh grade, and I genuinely haven’t stopped thinking about it since. The last lines, more than anything, have stuck with me for the last five years: “The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori.” We read several WWI poems during that unit, as well as All Quiet on the Western Front, but it is this poem in particular that has haunted me ever since. Reading it again now, after having read five books, one novella, eight short stories, and seventy poems about WWI this past semester, it has begun to take on a new meaning. When I read the poem again, I thought of Nellie driving her ambulance all night every night, of Paul teaching the young recruit how to live on the Front, of Mary Borden trying to save as many lives as she could even when the men came in with hemorrhaged lungs from the terrible gas. I knew from the very beginning of the semester that, for a poetry project, I was going to choose Owen’s “Dulce Et Decorum Est,” and I hope my interpretation doesn’t disappoint. Enjoy!

Lexi’s & Olivia’s Poetry Reflection on Siegfried Sassoon’s “Christ and the Soldier”

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What first caught our attention was the title of the poem: “Christ and the Soldier.” Because there are two speakers, it’s also a perfect poem to be performed as a duet. By using two narrators, it helps the audience to hear the different voices present in the poem. We just celebrated the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, which encourages us to focus our attention and effort on what really matters in this life: following the Lord’s will and His plan for our lives, even through the hardships we encounter in life. We thought this poem was an appropriate choice to finish the class because the end of the semester coincides with the Advent season, which is penitential in nature and calls us to properly prepare ourselves for the joy of the Nativity. 

In looking at interpretations of the poem online, we found that it’s meant to communicate the hollowness and impracticality of the Christian message in the face of the horrors of war. This, we think, completely misses the point of Christ’s Crucifixion and our ability to unite ourselves to Jesus and grow closer to Him in our sufferings. 

Instead of interpreting the ending as Jesus abandoning the soldier, we instead see His lack of response to mean that Jesus has died. And, as we all know the end of that story, this is great news for all of humanity, including the suffering soldier. The soldier may be greatly disillusioned with the war, but he is not alone in his pain and, through Christ’s sacrifice, now has the opportunity to be freed from sin and death.

We have both experienced moments of profound fear and loneliness, moments when God’s presence was not made explicitly clear as it had been at other times. Yet, during these low moments, we both knew that Christ was there, bearing His cross just as we bore ours, and working in our hearts to help us to not despair but to instead find strength and comfort in Him. For us, this poem is not about God being absent or ignoring us during our low moments, but instead about the soldier unfortunately giving into despair. Christ does not promise His followers exemption from this life’s pains, only that He won’t leave us in those times; our faith should not be dependent on feelings or grand gestures.