Poem- Report on Experience by Edmund Blunden
I have been young, and now am not too old;
And I have seen the righteous forsaken,
His health, his honour and his quality taken.
This is not what we were formerly told.
I have seen a green country, useful to the race,
Knocked silly with guns and mines, its villages vanished,
Even the last rat and the last kestrel banished -
God bless us all, this was peculiar grace.
I knew Seraphina; Nature gave her hue,
Glance, sympathy, note, like one from Eden.
I saw her smile warp, heard her lyric deaden;
She turned to harlotry; - this I took to be new.
Say what you will, our God sees how they run.
These disillussionments are His curious proving
That He loves humanity and will go on loving;
Over there are faith, life, virtue in the sun.
"Righteous forsaken" shows he experienced the war and thought it was morally wrong. "His" represent all the soldiers and how they were degraded, everything was taken away from them. They were lied to, they thought war would be good and fulfilling but it wasn't.
The "green" contrasts the dead earth and soldiers in the war. "Race" = war. It destroyed everything and all animals disappeared. "God bless us all" is religious imagery, shows this is what people found comfort in but it's a weird way to show them love.
"Seraphina" is the dream/perfect woman, maybe Blunden's ex girlfriend? Nature gave her colour. "Eden" is more religious imagery. "Lyric deaden" shows its dying, getting quieter. She turned to prostitution (harlotry)
God sees everything and war is a test to him. He loves all of us regardless of the war.
Novel- Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks page 162 2 paragraphs starting "At first he thought the war could..."
"Pouring bullets" is personification and "there was no longer any value accorded to a mere human life" shows soldiers no longer valued their lives any more. "Mechanical slaughter" is robotic and indicates how natural killing was for them. "Harden" shows killing made the men stronger. "Breach of nature" nature is supposed to be beautiful but no one can stop the destruction, a violation.
"Tuned" shows killing was a coping mechanism for Stephen. "Whose dazed and uncomprehending faces he saw through the blood and noise" blood was listed first so this is seen as more important and more recognised in the war. The soldiers didn't understand. "He came to believe that much worse was to come; that there would be annihilation on a scale the men themselves had not yet dreamed of" is foreshadowing the bad things to come (e.g. The Big Push). Connotations of "annihilation" are extinction and destruction. "Dreaming" is usually good/peaceful but this contrasts what is happening or going to happen.
Play- Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff page 102/103
SD "The faint rosy glow of the dawn is deepening to an angry red. The grey night sky is dissolving, and the stars begin to go. A tiny sound comes from where Raleigh is lying- something between a sob and a moan. Stanhope comes back with a blanket. He takes a candle from the table and carries it to Raleigh's bed. He puts it on the box beside Raleigh and speaks cheerfully "Is that better, Jimmy?" (Raleigh makes no sign). "Jimmy-" Still Raleigh is quiet. Stanhope gently takes his hand. There is a long silence. Stanhope lowers Raleigh's hand to the bed, rises, and tales the candle back to the table. He sits on the bench behind the table with his back to the wall, and stares listlessly across at the boy on Osborne's bed. The solitary candle-flame throws up the lines on his pale, drawn face, and the dark shadows under his tired eyes. The thudding of the shells rises and falls like an angry sea."
All of the stage directions are an example of pathetic fallacy. "The faint rosy glow of the dawn is deepening to an angry red" shows angry and blood which foreshadows the end of the play (death).
"Jimmy" is a lot more informal and personal, shows the two characters are good friends.
"The boy" portrays Raleigh as dying innocent, pure and small.
"The lines on his pale, drawn face, and the dark shadows under his tired eyes" exaggerates how tired and fed up Stanhope is. Connotations of "drawn" are drained and haggard even though he is a young soldier in the war.
"Like an angry sea" is personification and a similie and it shows the sea is big and vast. Also, "sea" shows the depths of anger the shells are portraying.
