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Help Needed on Analyzing WWI Poem for History Exam...
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| ElmoStalker |
Hey i was wondering if anyone here can help me analyze the meaning of this poem..I need all the info i can get because i have to write about it for history exam. I ask you for your help because you guys are really smart judging from the matrix analogies..well here's the poem, it's really long so please bare with me:
"Ypres:1915"
The age of Trumpets is passed, the banners hang
Like dead crows, tattered and black,
Rotting into nothingness on cathedral walls.
In the crypt of St. Paul's I had all the wrong thoughts,
Wondered if there was anything left of Nelson
Or Wellington, and even wished
I could pry open their tombs and look,
Then was ashamed
Of such morbid chilishness and almost afraid.
I know the picture is as much of a forgery
As the Protocols of Zion, yet it outdistances
More plausible fictions: newsreels, regimental histories,
biographies of Earl Haig.
It is always morning
And the sky somehow manages to be red through the picture
Is in black and white.
There is a long road over flat country,
Shell holes, the debris of houses,
A gun carriage overturned in a field,
The bodies of men and horses,
But only a few of them and those
Always neat and distant.
The Moors are running
Down the right side of the road.
The Moors are running
In their baggy pants and Santa Claus caps.
The Moors are running.
And their officers,
Frenchmen who remember
Alsace and Lorraine,
Are running backwards in front of them,
Waving their swords, trying to drive them back,
Weeping
At the dishonor of it all.
The Moors are running.
And on the left side of the same road,
The Canadians are marching
In the opposite direction
The Canadians are marching
In English uniforms behind
A piper playing "Scotland the Brave"
The Canadians are marching
In impeccable formation,
Every man in step.
The Canadians are marching.
And I know this belongs
With Lord Kitchener's moustache
And old movies in which the Kaiser and his general staff
Seem to run like the Keystone Kops.
The old man on television last night,
A farmer or fisherman by the sound of him,
Revisiting Vimy Ridge, and they asked him
What it was like, and he said,
There was water up to our middle, yes,
And there was rats, and yes
There was water up to our middles
And rats, all right enough,
And to tell the truth
AFter the first three or four days
I started to get a litte disgusted.
Oh, I know they were mercenaries
In a war that hardly concerned us.
I know all that
Sometimes I'm not even sure that I have a country.
But I know that they stood there at Ypres
The first time the Germans used gas,
That they were almost the only troops
In that section of the front
Who did not break and run,
Who held the line.
Perhaps they were too scared to run.
Perhaps they didn't know any better.
That is possible, they were so innocent,
Those farmboys and mechanics, you have to only look
At old pictures and see how they smiled
perhaps they were too shy
To walk out on anybody, even Death.
Perhaps their only motivation
Was a stubborn disinclination.
Private MacNally thinking:
You squarehead sons of bitches,
You want this God damned trench
You're going to have to take it away from Billy MacNally
Of the South end of St. John, New Brunswick
And that's ridiculous too, and nothing
On which too found a country
Still
It makes me feel good, knowing
That in some obscure way
They were connected with me
And me with them.
Good Luck and thx for taking the time anyways...:D |
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| Photo_bot_2k1 |
| It means that the evil death ninjas have sucessfully infiltrated the Zoo and captured the monkey princess. |
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| oRbo |
www.essaybank.com
try your luck there, helped me get B's for my GCSE coursework anyway :) |
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| Konijn Island |
The Battle of Ypres marked Canada's entry into WWI. The Germans, who at this battle began using poison gas, spanked the Canadians pretty hard, and while the Canadians suffered bad losses, it's generally seen (i guess where you live) as a moment of Canadian bravery.
The poem seems to demonstrate a man who's desperately trying to make sense of the horrors and the fundamental irratinality of war. Great military leaders of the past, like "Nelson," have created an overly romantic picture of war, where causes are always noble and where everything "is in black and white."
The reality, however, is much harsher as the sky remains "red" --and thus more complicated than "black and white"--and the author isn't even sure if he has a country anymore amid the lawlesness that surrounds him. Even though he recognizes that a romantic vision of the past is as much a "forgery as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion" (the anti-Semitic tract fabricated by Czar Nicholas the Great to turn public sentiment against the Jews during the Russian pogroms) he can't help the difficulty in reconciling rhetoric and reality.
In the end though, despite the horrors of war and the variety of motives that individual soldiers entertain, the author recognizes that they were all fighting for a greater good and thus locates heroism in their actions: the "connection" and sense of purpose that was shared among all these different people ultimately redeems the horror of the war and in some ways provides a sense of sanity amid the insane. |
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| KilldaDJ |
history exam is abt russia and germany...
me have it @ 9am sharp...and i dont know a thing |
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| occrider |
I hated writing commentaries for English, but I'll take a gander:
| quote: |
"Ypres:1915"
The age of Trumpets is passed, the banners hang
Like dead crows, tattered and black,
Rotting into nothingness on cathedral walls.
|
Obviously, the intrigue and chivalry of war has passed. What was once seen as a triumphant, joyous celebration of trumpets and gay (color gay not gay gay) banners have transformed into it's true form, a decrepit nothingness that reeks of death.
| quote: |
In the crypt of St. Paul's I had all the wrong thoughts,
Wondered if there was anything left of Nelson
Or Wellington, and even wished
I could pry open their tombs and look,
Then was ashamed
Of such morbid chilishness and almost afraid.
|
Nelson and Wellington were famous generals of previous wars. They were admired as heroes, the popstars of war so to speak. As such, when you spoke their names you envisioned grandeoise battles of cunning and intellect whereby the horrors of war are convenientely forgotten. Thus in this cathedral, a holy place, the author is ashamed to even revert to such former beliefs after experiencing the horrors of war.
| quote: |
I know the picture is as much of a forgery
As the Protocols of Zion, yet it outdistances
More plausible fictions: newsreels, regimental histories,
biographies of Earl Haig.
It is always morning
And the sky somehow manages to be red through the picture
Is in black and white.
There is a long road over flat country,
Shell holes, the debris of houses,
A gun carriage overturned in a field,
The bodies of men and horses,
But only a few of them and those
Always neat and distant.
The Moors are running
Down the right side of the road.
The Moors are running
In their baggy pants and Santa Claus caps.
The Moors are running.
And their officers,
Frenchmen who remember
Alsace and Lorraine,
Are running backwards in front of them,
Waving their swords, trying to drive them back,
Weeping
At the dishonor of it all.
The Moors are running.
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Going into detail about how he "thought" war was like. Much like the protocols of zion (an anti-Jewish book proclaiming the evilness of Jews) his former beliefs of war were an illusion. Yet it is beyond what he would even percieve as documentaries. With the morning part, perhaps he is alluding to the fact that despite it being a black and white film, the red (or the blood) transcends even that. Despite his seemingly calm and rational recollections of past events, as a documentary would, all he can fixate on is the red blood. And the dead bodies and horses are neatly fixated as if normal ... as if the bloodshed and the bodies are a fact of life in war.
The whole moor part is semi-confusing. My best understanding of that passage is that, these moors (who are unexperienced in total war) are almost comical in appearance. Running gaily into battle in their almost comical uniform. Yet the french who are leading them ( who are experienced in previous battles for Alsace-Lorraine) are weeping because they understand what they are leading these naive troops into, they want to pursuade them to turn back, yet they cannot because these moors are as naieve as the author once was with respects to the gallantry and joys of war.
| quote: |
And on the left side of the same road,
The Canadians are marching
In the opposite direction
The Canadians are marching
In English uniforms behind
A piper playing "Scotland the Brave"
The Canadians are marching
In impeccable formation,
Every man in step.
The Canadians are marching.
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Nooooooo ing clue. I'll hazard a guess though. Perhaps the Canadians, that by being closely associated with europeans (and by experiencing war in battle), have finally discovered the horrors of war. Thus they done the english uniforms, they play english anthems, and they march away from war. Because every single one of them knows the horrors that it brings.
| quote: |
And I know this belongs
With Lord Kitchener's moustache
And old movies in which the Kaiser and his general staff
Seem to run like the Keystone Kops.
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Dunno
| quote: |
The old man on television last night,
A farmer or fisherman by the sound of him,
Revisiting Vimy Ridge, and they asked him
What it was like, and he said,
There was water up to our middle, yes,
And there was rats, and yes
There was water up to our middles
And rats, all right enough,
And to tell the truth
AFter the first three or four days
I started to get a litte disgusted.
Oh, I know they were mercenaries
In a war that hardly concerned us.
I know all that
Sometimes I'm not even sure that I have a country.
But I know that they stood there at Ypres
The first time the Germans used gas,
That they were almost the only troops
In that section of the front
Who did not break and run,
Who held the line.
Perhaps they were too scared to run.
Perhaps they didn't know any better.
That is possible, they were so innocent,
Those farmboys and mechanics, you have to only look
At old pictures and see how they smiled
perhaps they were too shy
To walk out on anybody, even Death.
Perhaps their only motivation
Was a stubborn disinclination.
Private MacNally thinking:
You squarehead sons of bitches,
You want this God damned trench
You're going to have to take it away from Billy MacNally
Of the South end of St. John, New Brunswick
And that's ridiculous too, and nothing
On which too found a country
Still
It makes me feel good, knowing
That in some obscure way
They were connected with me
And me with them.
Good Luck and thx for taking the time anyways...:D |
Ok after that it seems a lot less poetic (I thought the poem was focused on the horrors of war) and more focused on the patriotic British stand against the Germans. What a ty way to end what seemed like a good poem. Anyway that's my interpretation ... hope it helps, sorry if it sucsk. Poetry is so ambivalent that you can't really pinpoint a correct interpretation. Good luck on your paper.
Edit: sorry konijin ... I didn't even read your post. In retrospect we think alike with regards to english literature! |
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| Konijn Island |
| quote: | Originally posted by occrider
Edit: sorry konijin ... I didn't even read your post. In retrospect we think alike with regards to english literature! |
lol, indeed :) |
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