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| English Poet Wilfred Owen Source: Wikipedia |
Unfortunately, this idealism and optimism didn’t endure the war, and for most soldiers, was lost early on in the trenches. The shift in attitude is evidenced in the literature and poetry that we have today that dates back to the Great War. Much of what the soldiers recorded is dark and cold as they write of death, pain, and horror.
Today I had the opportunity to listen to many poems written during WWI, and I’ll be honest with you, it was hard to keep my composure hearing about the lives of the soldiers. There was one poem in particular that struck a chord with me by an English poet and soldier, Wilfred Owen, entitled ‘Disabled.’ I felt that it related to my life, even though it was written one hundred years ago, and even though it was written from the perspective of a soldier. Owen writes about a subject that I, along with most people in the world face daily: fear.
One parallel specifically regarding fear is that the soldiers had no idea where the next bomb was going explode, so they had to constantly be on guard. Do we see this today? In movie theaters, line dancing bars, night clubs, classrooms, and concerts?
Another commonality is that with real fear, there is no off button. Fear is a force that lingers, we learn from his poem, though it would be nice if it didn’t overstay its welcome.
What we can conclude is that whether on the front lines at war, or the battlefields at home, we will face fear. But like any good soldier, we can brave our fearful challenges as they come.
What we can conclude is that whether on the front lines at war, or the battlefields at home, we will face fear. But like any good soldier, we can brave our fearful challenges as they come.
At the international cinema over the weekend, I watched the 1927 silent film "Wings" that really emphasized this "progress and becoming" ideal who mentioned. I agree that perhaps war is too often too glamorized, in the period of the World Wars as well as today. Perhaps on a different scale we see glamorization of things like suicide and other mental illnesses.
ReplyDeleteI recently received wise advice from a dear loved one and mentor: "Do not let fear be your teacher. Let pain be your teacher." We must remember the importance of pain and suffering, and that fear lies independent of it. I can only imagine how critical this mentality would be in the trenches-- but are we not all figuratively fighting a war?
ReplyDeleteIt's incredible how art can transcend time and still be relevant almost a century later. When you mentioned fear today in your last few paragraphs, it made me realize how much we really do have to fear in the modern world and how unsafe we unfortunately are at times.
ReplyDeleteFear is something that plagues every generation no matter the circumstances. Whether you are a soldier fighting in WW1 or a child in his bedroom at night asking his parents to leave the door open, fear is ever-present. Its part of being human. We can learn a lot about ourselves and how to handle fear through art like the poem you referenced.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that seems to stick out from this period is that there was in fact change, and progress in several areas. From what I can see, Romantics like Heinrich saw what war could do to someone without accounting for all the terrible things that happen along the way. It was because of this war that greater rights were given to other groups, something that might not have been possible had society not been shaken up.
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