Using "Exit Wounds" or"Contemporary War Poems from the Front Lines," choose ONE modern war poem that we ARE NOT discussing in class. Discuss the poem's message, the ways the poet conveys this message, and your reaction to the poem.
Reminder 1: Your response should be approximately 2 full paragraphs of well-developed and concrete analysis, so choose a poem about which you have much to say.
Reminder 2: Make sure you read the responses that your classmates post before you. You will not earn credit for repeating someone else's ideas!
All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Monday, 2/14
My poem I chose for this blog is intitled " Earth". In this poem the author is trying to compare the earth to your everyday life. It is comparing how every persons feelings can be expressed and saying that everyone needs comfort through something, in this situation the earth is the shelter. By saying perhaps life is a crow or perhaps life is satan himself is stating different situations of who people could be, in the world there is both good and bad this helps to see it in comparison because everyone has a different personality, different outlook of what they think of life. I feel the ending stanza " and here I give thanks on the brink of "victory" is the perfect way to end the poem. That is basically saying that the poet enjoys life, that it can be a victorious and happy idea.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.poemhunter.com/poem/what-is-war-3/ The poem I choose is called “What is war.” The author’s message in this poem is that you can look at war in an optimistic or pessimistic way. However War will to always exist. He is expressing his belief that people can feel very strongly about war, but someone else can have the opposite opinion. Since people support both opinions of war, one person’s perspective on war is not going to change anything.
ReplyDeleteThe author conveys this message because he starts the poem out by saying that war is here and it is happening now. Then after that he starts to give two opposite views of war (one negative and one positive). After that mentions again that we will always live in a world of war. The last line of the poem says that “I wonder if war last ends in heaven.” I interpreted this to mean that, heaven is the only place where war might not exist, and the author is even questioning that there is peace in heaven.
The poem I chose is "After the Stealth Bomber" by Robert Minhinnick. The poem's message is about a woman, Umm Ghada, who lost many family members after a stealth bomber destroyed a bunker with 400 civilians in it. It tells of how "stealth steals" and "...smart bomb. Not so smart." and even though stealth steals Umm Ghada guards the place where she lost so much. It speaks of these innocents who were stripped of life so suddenly.
ReplyDeleteThe author conveys this by using his imagery to tell the story of what happened. He uses imagery to describe what happened to the people that were killed "all the bodies foaming like phosphorus in a bunker in Iraq." and to describe Umm Ghada "Umm Ghada my guide
in the charnel house corridors".
My reaction is one of sympathy for this woman. It is tragic that so many innocent people would be killed by our government like that. The poem was fairly easy to understand.
The title of the poem I chose is "Like a Desert Flower" by Parween Faiz Zadah Malaal. What the author is trying to convey in this poem is that war should be stopped and peace should come. People get tired of war and hurt by it. The author does not want this happen any more. The poet is conveying this message by using words like waiting and longing. He is comparing the waiting flower and long dawn to the exhausted ones, and saying how they need a peace time.
ReplyDeleteMy reaction to this poem is that I feel the poet's sincerety to want the peace. Even though using simple words and sentence structures, he is well conveying his message. After reading the poem, I feel like I should seek ways to contribute to world peace and participate in it more.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/25/war-poetry-carol-ann-duffy The poem I chose is called War on Terro by Fred D'Aguiar. The author try to tell readers about a bitter, reproach and spote feelings to government and misery of his life and family. The poem conveys that the misery of the terror he had to do through direct depiction and gloomy tone. He directly mentioned his child and wife in this poem and this shows tragedy of his family that the war caused. He misses his kids and war is never good for young children like he had.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is what I think first when I think about war because war ruins soldier's family. War never can be good for kids. This author misses his family a lot in this poem I can feel by his sadness. I can also feel the nostalgia towards home and family, and the emptiness of war. Basically, I was able to feel how soldiers that has kids in their home feel when they are in war.
I chose "Like A Desert Flower". The author is trying to say that everything and everyone involved in war wants to make peace. They are constantly striving for what they need to make the war end. He is trying to say that sometimes you just need a break from war and fighting, and just be peaceful for awhile. By comparing a desert flower thirsting for water to the people of war, the poem explains that the way that a dry flower would need to be quenched by water, we as people need to experience peace at times in our lives.
ReplyDeleteI choose the poem "A brief victory". This poem tells about a soldier in the war who fires a shot at an enemy, but then shortly after he does so, he realises that he regrets killing. Soon after that he is shot. The general says to him that he has done good for the country and he will be rewarded soon with a better place. Instead he spends the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
ReplyDeleteThis poem shows that no one wins in war. It says that no matter what side 'wins', there is no real winner in war. the moral of the story is that nothing good can come out of something so wrong.
WOUNDS THAT NEVER HEAL by Richard E. McGintry. http://www.angelfire.com/wa/warpoetry/Woundsheal.html
ReplyDeleteThe message the author is trying to teach is that even thoug he is home with the ones he loves there is still pain. He pictures all the dead friends he had in Iraq and it still hurts him. When he touches his family he thinks about the fallen ones and thinks as them as heros. And since he thinks they are great heros that fought for the country he thinks God smiles for them.
My reaction to the peom is it is a nice reminder that the people that died for our country are just as important as the ones are still alive. It makes you feel happy for them and they make God smile because of their compassion for a country and loved one at home. This was a good poem even though it was very short we still get a lot from it.
The poem "Listen" speaks to everyone who has experienced war. It relates to those who have lost a brother,son, or husband. It relates to the soldiers in battle, and to those at home. The message I get from tis poem is to essentially listen. Listen to the sounds of war because they are all around. No matter where you are there will always be some kind of war.
ReplyDeleteThe sounds of war are universal. Every race, every language, every country experiences war in the same way. If you listen to the crys, the cheers, the bullets, you can hear everything you need to know. The souns of war explain everything all you need to do is listen.
I chose the poem "Pronouns" by Dunya Mikhail. In this poem, the author is using three pronouns - He, She, and They to tell how one is connected with another. One idea that the poem convey's is that when the guy (He) is expressed as an object or person, she woman (She) is expressed as something similar or connected to whatever the guy is. For example, in the first stanza, He is expressed as a train, she is expressed as a whistle, and then both of them move away together. For the rest of the poem, the author repeats this pattern by expressing the guy as something, then the woman as something similar or connected to him. Then they are combined together for the simple vision of what would happen when both of them are put together.
ReplyDeleteI thought this poem was very interesting and clever how the author expressed a guy and a woman as a person or an object, then combined them together to show what would happen when they are combined. I think the message of the poem is that by describing two people as objects or as people that are connected to each other, they can be expressed as something simple but yet with a meaning. For example, in the last stanza the author describes He as a general, She as people, and when put together, war is declared. This method is a very clever way to get points and messages across to the reader.
The poem I chose was "War on Terror". This poem relates to any soldier that has come home from war, their families, and the families who have lost a loved one to war. The poem descibes how the memories and thoughts of war are a scary memory that will never go away. War is something you cannot escape or get away from, the author incorporates this point with his beginning stanza. He also says that war will continously aspire because of the government's impact on the generations to come, in his last stanza.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this poem's message because I feel that once you've experienced war or lost someone to it you will never be the same and those memories will remain in your head forever, good or bad.
I chose Ashbah by Brian Turner. It tells how the souls of fallen american soldiers in Iraq just wander the desert looking for a way home. They can't find a way home so they become miserable and tired. Thier souls cannot rest in the desert.
ReplyDeleteBut the fallen Iraqi souldier's souls can be at rest because they are at home, and near Mecca, thier holy city and shrine.
A Brief Victory
ReplyDeleteby Peter Kelly
I like this poem a lot. This poem makes the man in it feel as if killing someone is bad but then it also makes the person feel that he did well from his training. This poem coveys that message well even though it is not the longest of poems. The poem shows that the guy who killed the person does feel good about what he did. But then he waited from recognition for his duty from his fellow soldiers and they didn't give it to him right away so he started to feel bad thinking he did some something wrong. Although he did a good duty he got hurt in the war which was a bad thing. Now that he is hurt, he can go back with his mother. Now that he is hurt, war has left him with one companion and that is his wheelchair.
I really liked this poem. I liked the poem because it sounded a lot like what war would be like in WW I. They kind of just sit around and chill until there is some action. I also like the poem because it was short and to the point. I like short poems that are pretty easy to understand. Longer poems mostly confuse me.
I chose Pronouns by Dunya Mikhail. This seems to be about the general 'pronouns' we label ourselves with figuratively. The train and the whistle signifying movement throughout our life. The rope and the tree signifying childhood. The dream and the feather representing in essence our dreams, our hopes for the future, as well as our potential. And lastly the general and people representing conflict that is ever present in our society. This gives me a message that we can play the part of whatever we want to play but in the end ultimately choose our own parts. Which also means that war is a product of our own choices as well. Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that this is true and we sometimes fail to see that truth.
ReplyDeleteI chose the poem In Times of Peace the message of the poem is how soldiers will act when they return home from war. The soldiers are used to being on edge about attack and they have to learn to how remain calm at home and try to forget the war. He conveys the message by talking about how the only ambush they will encounter when they will get home is the bubbles in their baths. He also talks about how they won’t experience the adrenaline rushes they had during war.
ReplyDeleteI liked this poem, and its message. I thought it was an interesting thing to think about. The soldiers have to readjust and it might be hard for them. They don’t have to deal with living life in a war torn area and fearing for their lives. It was a good poem to get your mind thinking about after war life for the soldiers.
The poem I chose to evaluate is War on Terror by Frank A’guilar. This poem explains how terror is express through physical endeavors involving the mind and body. The war can last however long it wants to in a dream but reality must set in as some point. My favorite part of this poem is the third little stanza because it comparing the calming sounds of a whale to a crying child in their sleep. I enjoyed this stanza because it is easy to picture in my mind and shows detail and comparison towards war.
ReplyDeleteThe last mini stanza of this poem explains how our governments are forcing children into learning about politics and overflowing their brains with this kind of information. Children are focused on war at this age which is unnecessary and wrong because it gives them no chance to express themselves in any way. This poem is significant to war by showing war can be set in dreams as well as reality and takes a major toll in every society.
The poem i choose is Afghanistan by Paul Muldoon. I liked this poem for 2 reasons. 1. because it was short and sweet and 2. because i actually finally found a poem i could understand. The lines "It's getting dark, but not dark enough to see
ReplyDeleteAn exit wound as an exit strategy." means that the soldier wants to get out of the war so he finds something wounded so that he has a strategy out of the war. It means to me that the soldier is scared and just wants to get home and be done with the war and fighting.
I read Like a Desert Flower. This poem talks about how the innocent people that aren't involved in the war are being affect the most because all the resources and necessities of life are being taken away from them. It tells us how a desert flower is searching for water and fighting for survival and that is exactly what these people are doing. It also says how they need a break jus to catch their breath and get back on their feet because right now they are at rock bottom.
ReplyDeleteThe author says in arms of peace twice to emphasize the fact that they must find peace or these people will not survive. These people need all the help they can get but with the war going on, theres nothing anyone can do. I think that the war must be stopped or a treaty of some kind must be made or else the people that are living in the war zone will have no chance of surviving.
The poem i chose was "War On Terror" by Fred D'Aguiar. It basically speaks about the pain that soldiers feel when they are at home after the war. The line "Lasts for as long as nightmares,paint behind the eyelids. as long as a piece of string, cut from a navel remains buried under a tamarind tree" means that as long as a soldier has a memory of the war, they will feel the pain of it. Soldiers suffer with the post-traumatic issues sometimes daily, depending on how bad their experience was.
ReplyDeleteThe worst part about this for them is there is sometimes nothing they can do to get rid of the pain they feel. For example, My uncle is a former soldier. He cannot speak about anything he has seen over there because of the pain that he has gone through. Its gotten so bad that even therapy has not helped him, he cannot even watch a war movie or play a war video game with his kids because it just brings back pain
The Poem I'd like to discuss would be The Unknown Soldier by Angela Morgan. The reason I'd like to talk about this poem would have to be the fact that it tells about all the soldiers that are forgetten after war time is over, and that we should always remember what they who have passed away from war have done for us and the freedom that they have provided us.
ReplyDeleteThe poet talks about this topic in a very somber way, in the way that she talks about them in great respect as one should do for those that have fought for our freedom. She always tells about how she herself will always cheerish the memories of those who selflessly gave themselves up for freedoms sake.
My reaction to this poem was one of realization. After reading this poem I did kind of realize that I fully didn't appreciate what the soldiers fighting our battles were doing for us all this time.
The poem that I choose is “In My Spare Time” by Fadhil al-Azzawi. I really enjoyed this poem, and its unique way of getting its message across. This poems talk about the way the world would be if there was justice and actual peace. A good portion of the poem is hoe the author would have the world if it were up to him. It takes a while for the reader to fully understand this message because the poem does not come “full-circle”, so to speak, until the very last stanza. Everything before this stanza I found myself saying to myself, “where is the author going with this poem?” but once I had completely finished the poem the message became clearer. Even though it is completely impossible to do the type of world changing al-Azzawi is talking about, it is necessary for justice and peace. I think that al-Azzawi could be trying to say that peace and justice in the world is impossible.
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