Dueling War Sonnets: Brooke and Sassoon

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes and contrasts two sonnets written respectively by the British WWI poets Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon: "The Soldier" and "Dreamers". The writer discusses how both poets modified the traditional structure of the sonnet to accomplish their poetic ends. Brooke's poem is elegiac in tone, focusing on national identity and acquiescing in death as a doorway to eternity, while Sassoon's is a bitter and ironic protest against the injustice and inhumanities of war.

From the Paper:

"Sassoon writes in a voice of protest, not acquiescence, unlike Brooke, despite his use of the sonnet form. "Dreamers" begins with a striking image, the image of soldiers going off to war, presumably by train to the front lines, rather than in the middle of an internalized thought like Brooke's poem. Brooke's poem focuses on an individual soldier who will be remembered, Sassoon's the vast, nameless masses of men who will die and be forgotten. Some of Sassoon's dreamers are good, some are bad, all have different problems and jealous conflicts at home, but they are in the process of being blended into one in the form of a purposeless army whose cause they can little understand."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brooke, Rupert. "The Soldier." 1914. 12 Nov 2007. http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/projects/jtap/tutorials/intro/brooke/vsoldier.html#litcrit
• Means, Robert. "Literary Criticism of 'The Soldier.'" Nov 1996. Last updated 22 Jul 2005. 12 Nov 2007 http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/projects/jtap/tutorials/intro/brooke/vsoldier.html#litcrit
• Sassoon, Siegfried. "Dreamers." 1919. 12 Nov 2007. http://www.eliteskills.com/c/9941
• "Sonnets of World War I." Sonnet Central. Page created January 20, 1997. Moved February 20, 1999. Lat modified October 29, 2007. 12 Nov 2007. http://www.sonnets.org/wwi.htm#200

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