Kyndra Prietzel

Period 1
3.5

I think the readings give us a new perspective of how it is the complete opposite of how
our other readings have been. From Callinus and Tyraeus they see war as a way to show honor
and glory. However, in these readings there is almost a plea or a wanting for people not to go to
war. Yosano Akiko in her poem pleaded her brother not to go to war. I believe her brother is her
country, and she speaks about the men leaving, and how their mothers and wives will miss them,
and how they are going off to basically die in war. She states, “Did they nurture you for twenty-
four years And send you to kill and die?” (pg. 668). Obviously, there is a whole new view of war
from the poem. It almost gives a truthfulness to the many perspectives of war. Though, through
history war has been made to seem strong and courageous the truth is that it is scary. Her poem
shows the fear and misery of those they love leaving to die.
“The War Prayer” is also honest in a way where we can try to understand the
complexities of war. At the end of the reading the stranger within the story tells the
congregatione that they pray for their men to conquer, but also at the same time pray for their
enemy to die. He states, “O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our
shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to
drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain;” (pg. 670). He
goes on further crying out many things to do to their enemy such as making their children
orphans, deprived of food, broken spirited by winds and rain, and much more. At the end he
cries, “Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High awaits”
(pg. 671). I think this definitely gives a new perspective to war. Instead of feeling overall pride in
our own country the stranger is reflecting upon how we view our enemy, and how we
dehumanize them. We strictly believe we are above all of them, and have God on our side. This
reading gives an insight we should all have during war times. We shouldn’t plunge into war
believing we are the all good and righteous and our enemy the wicked and false. I think it gives a
different idea that we should come to terms that even the enemy believes what they are doing is
right. They believe they have God on their side as well. Also, praying for destruction on humans
won’t prove anything to God. In a way, I think this reading is especially interesting stating that
both sides believe in something, and we shouldn’t assume that they are the devil people and we
are the best. Each side has their reasons.
Owen’s poetry dives into the sensory mode of thinking by giving specific details and
truth that make you think. His first poem, “Dulce Et Decorum Est” is very blunt about what war
is like, and how it can affect you. Instead of making war seem as this glorious thing Owen takes
a different turn at it. Even from the very first line you already have an idea of how tiring war can
be, and how traumatizing. “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing
like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards
our distant rest began to trudge” (pg. 672). From the way he describes war using words such as
“old beggars”, “coughing like hags”, “sludge”, “haunting”, and “trudge” these words give a
mood of the poem of the difficulties of war. Owen makes sure to be truthful to himself when
writing, and share how he felt at war. It is a horrendous difficult thing. In the third, and last
stanza there is a description of war on soldiers and how gruesome it is. Then he asks, “My friend,
you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie:
Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori” (pg. 672). He is stating how war isn’t a lovely thing to go
through, and how it can completely change your life. In his other poem, “Disabled” Owen has
the same feeling of despair of war. He begins by stating a soldier in a wheelchair while
remembering his time before he left for war, and then when he came back. When he left people
were applauding, and cheering for him. When he came back he was a different person, a more
disconnected person. “Now, he will spend a few sick years in Institutes, And do what things the
rules consider wise, And take whatever pity they may dole” (pg. 673). This a more of an eye
opener of how men, and women, can come back from war seeming less of themselves, or
seriously traumatized. From the fourth stanza he makes it seem as if it is a glorious thing to go
out to war, but at the ending you know what happened to him. He came back wheelchair bound,
obviously injured both physically and mentally. Owen makes sure to give a clear message, rather
than a mythical one like the mythical mode of thinking, about what war can truly do to a person
and how it can deeply affect them. He uses words at the beginning to describe the soldier as old,
pale, and weak after his experience. Overall, Owen shares a different perspective of war and how
it is dangerous and threatening to a person’s overall well being. He gives a sensory mode of
thinking that gives details that strictly state and explain what it is like to be a soldier, or within a
war. He never lies to make war seem like a honorable, glorious, treasurable thing in a man’s life,
but gives good clear reasons of how it utterly affects a person.