WWI Poems

WWI might link to modernism because the issues that caused World War 1 are also popular topics in Modernism. Also, they were happening around the same time so the same ideas would be prevalent. I chose two particular pieces of artwork, two poems. I chose "Back" by Wilfred Gibson and, "How to Die" by Siegfried Sassoon.

"Back" by Wilfred Gibson is written from the point of view of a soldier who, after the war, was asked how the war was. He describes how he doesn't know how to describe what he had lived through because he wasn't quite sure that words could describe it. He talks about the blame that he has to bear for killing all of the people he did because he was told to. It shows us just how traumatic and hard fought WWI was. He really tries to emphasize that there really was no way to describe the war to people after the fact.

"How to Die" by Siegfried Sassoon describes viewing the death of someone else in the army. He describes how he was almost "taught" to die correctly and that shows us the death became routine for the soldiers. Like, it became so common that there was a way that decided was the best i guess. He also talks about others' reactions to that persons death. He talks about how people go home with their minds just destroyed. He almost makes it sound artistic with the way that he describes the death.