Anthem for Doomed Youth Reflection

Wilfred Owen

I enjoyed "Anthem for Doomed Youth", because it felt straight forward and honest. Owen's language is simple, and yet the subtle allusions and personification add real depth to the poem. The poem is in sonnet form. The way Owen likens the soldiers' deaths to that of cattle, and replaces their passing-bells with the blasts of artillery, makes the war seem so much more gruesome and real. Owen uses the second half of the poem to point out the youths won't be given a funeral, and works to make the reader feel even more sorrow for them. Because the first half describes the horror of the war, the second half more effectively moves the reader when illustrating the pitiful situation.


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Poets Against The War Reflection

This is a reflection of mine on a poem from the Poets Against The War database.

an interruption of one's routine during war

After browsing through various poems on the poets against war website, this one caught my attention. In the introduction to the poem, the poet feels the need to draw attention to the silence people have towards the reality of war. She includes this quote from Audre Lorde, “When we speak, we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak”. The poem is short and relatively simple, but I still felt very moved by it. The first half illustrates a man close to tears in a coffee shop, reading a newspaper. I felt the poet created an image of an everyday man confronting war in any everyday situation that demanded the reader to stop an think. The poem made me realize the place of embarrassment our country has been put in by our silence about war. War finally causes a man to indulge in his frustrations and break his silence in a public place, and yet he simply must buy his latte, and move on with his day. I approve of the poem’s encouragement to do more than be held captive by silence.

Comparing "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "Heritage"

“The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock” by T. S. Elliot, and “Heritage” by Countee Cullen are both ultimately poems of reflection and contemplation. Alfred J. Prufrock exhibits his uncertainties about the future, while the narrator in Countee Cullen’s poem reflects on his heritage, culture, and past. The speaker in each poem is part of what makes the poems seem so different. Alfred J. Prufrock comes off as a lazy man who is indecisive. The entire poem seems to be a quest just to gain the courage to act, let alone deciding what actions are right or warranted in his case. The speaker in “Heritage” seems much more sure of themselves, and more focused on a specific goal. The poem starts with the question “What is Africa to me:” and follows with musings on that topic
  “Heritage” uses a constant rhyme scheme while “Prufrock” does not, but when “Prufrock” does rhyme, it is in a similar AABBCC… style to Cullen’s. The presence of a fixed rhyme scheme adds to the more coherent nature of “Heritage”. Elliot’s poem is also broken into shorter stanzas than Cullen’s. This helps “Prufrock” to move at a quicker pace than “Heritage”, but it feels a little disorienting when the subject changes from stanza to stanza. The strongest theme present in “Heritage” is the speaker’s frustration at the way the white American culture limits their acceptance and expression of their African culture. The second half of the second stanza is a clear expression of the speaker’s growing distaste of the American pressure, “So I lie, whose fount of pride, Dear distress, and joy allied, Is my somber flesh and skin, With the dark blood dammed within Like great pulsing tides of wine That, I fear, must burst the fine Channels of the chafing net Where they surge and foam and fret.” The speaker’s dissent is growing greater than they can contain.
  The speaker in “Prufrock” seems most limited by his expectations. His encounters with past loved ones seem to have stripped him of his ability to venture into his own decisions. Cullen’s poem seems to be the one making something the most “new”. Instead of remaining complacent with the white oppression of African heritage, Cullen illustrates the difficulties African Americans face, and makes their struggle new. He is supporting those who want to acknowledge and work with their African past. “Prufrock” seems to be making new the question of what it means to act in the world. For both speakers, their pasts are acting to try to hold them in place and keep them from setting out upon a new course.

Introductions

Hello fellow poetry readers,

My name is John Miller and I am writing this blog for my English 210 "Intro to Literature" class at Goshen College.  The class started with poetry as a response to September 11th then moved back in time to study the rise of Modernist poetry with Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and their contemporaries.  Initially I will be posting my previous reflections on different poems we've focussed on in class.  Each member of my class is starting a blog, and so I hope you will take time to follow each and every one of them.  I'm sure a collection of a dozen or so different views on a selection of poems will make for a worthwhile read.  Enjoy your time here, and be sure to join the party!

-John