There were many reasons why Civil War poets wrote about the war. Some used the war to express their ideas concerning society, religion, and man?s place in the world. While others aspired to capture the effects of the war and its impact on the soldiers and their families. Few of the poets trying to capture the war?s effects approached realism because sentimentality and melodramatic temper was typical for their era. There were so many different feelings express in the poetry about the Civil War. I plan to compare the similarities and contrast the differences of poems by authors of this period, both black and white. I also plan to discuss the affect of the North verses the South conflict from the respective point of view. They concentrated on different feelings and actions during and after the Civil War.
War poetry written by noncombatants is significant because of its acknowledgement of other cultural aspects of the Civil War. The everyday people that were affected– the housewives, medical doctors, teachers, preachers, bankers, journalists, schoolboys and girls– are valuable because they consider themselves to be representation of society. The southern and northern poems have many in commons but also many contrasting things too.
Northern poets quickly took the offensive on the issue of slavery. They thought the concept and anyone involved with slavery was evil. The poem, ?Our Flag? by T.H. Underwood really gets the emotions going when it is read. He writes of a slave owner who murders a slave?s mother and wife. Writing about this lets Underwood express the drama of the cruelty that was bestowed upon the slaves. Toward the end of this poem he writes of the slave?s dead wife and he refers to her as being noble. ?For now my darling in her slumber lay as royally as lays the noblest clay? (The Poetry of the American Civil War- pg. 123).
The Essay on Beautifies Of Poems
BEAUTIFIES OF POEMS A ZYST OF ALL POEMS The collection of all these poems exhibit mystic and celestial aspects of life. All these poems have a clear reflection of our own life which we live in many manners. Poets destine their imaginations beyond measure and they hold a magic mirror before us that unfolds the wonders and beauties of nature. But these are only shadows and reflections. In a way, ...
I?ve noticed that many of the poets ennoble the dead, mostly the soldiers, but here Underwood says it towards a dead slave. During and after the war every soldier was thought of very highly. Underwood uses much realism but writes from a second hand perspective or ultimately through his imagination. Another poem I read ?Ode? by Henry Timrod shows how the poets of the time ennobled the soldiers that fought in the war, as well as the slave in ?Our Flag?. This poem is one of the firsts in its time to speak of the champions with honor and enduring fame. Now, war has become a means of ennobling those who fight without regard for the outcome or aims. I believe the soldiers and the slaves were very noble. Indeed they all had to be really brave to deal with the conditions they were forced into. Another poem by a Northern poet is ?Returned From War? by Henry L Abbey from May Dreams. It is similar to ?Our Flag? because Abbey is probably using his imagination. This makes the poem realistic only in the way that it probably happened. This poem doesn?t express directly the soldier?s nobility but it brings the battlefield and the home together. Depicting the dead soldier brought home from the war to his wife shows the emotion of the effects of the battlefield in the home.
This is similar to ?Our Flag?. Another similarity, is in ?Returned From War? where Abbey talks of the dead soldier wrapped in the American flag. ?Shrouded by his country?s flag, And in martial garments dressed.? (The Poetry of the Civil War- pg. 32) He shows how important the American flag was to everyone both South and North. Underwood writes, ?These crimson spots are my poor mother?s blood; The winding sheet I wrapt her in, When in the night, I stole her corpse away To give rest within its house of clay.? (Also from The Poetry of the Civil War- pg. 123) Underwood writes of the blood spots on the flag that the slave saved and showed him. This added to the drama and let him use the melodramatic temper they loved to write with in the nineteenth century.
The Essay on Causes Of Mexican American War
2. Their were several events which led to the start of the Mexican-American War an there were also many things that happened as a result of the War. American belief of Manifest Destiny was a major factor in the cause of the war, Land hungry Americans were ready to do whatever it took to acquire more land to make themselves rich. This belief in Manifest Destiny caused Mexico and America to go to ...
The poem by T. H. Underwood, ?Our Flag? and the poem I am going to talk about ?The Jacket of Grey? by the Southern poet Caroline Augusta Ball both show the sorrow and pride of the dead soldiers coming home. This is just one of the similarities between the South and the North. Another comparison I find is that all of these authors put an importance on the bloody articles of the dead that the families hold onto. In most cases it?s the American flag but in Caroline Ball?s poem it?s the gray jacket the soldier was wearing. Mostly all of the poems touch on the American flag as an insight about the War Between the States. In these three poems they mostly stick to the horrible feelings and situations the war caused.
Some of the African American poets saw the war as something that almost would purify America. This was also Walt Whitman?s (another 19th century poet) opinion but he is a whole other topic. I mention him only as an insight to others with this opinion. They believe it?s not necessarily a bad thing but a chance to defend the rights of all Americans especially their rights as people. In ?The Reason Why? George Clinton Rowe writes of a soldier that has the American flag and is supposed to ?Bring back to me this banner, This ensign of the free!? said the sergeant. ?Holding the flag on high; ?I?ll bring it back or else report to God the reason why!? ? (African -American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century- pg. 344) This again shows what an impact the American flag had on everyone, whether black, white, soldier, or mother. The poem later explains that the soldier had died and ?He left the flag, reporting To God the reason why.? This poem definitely expresses the bravery of the black soldiers on the battlefield.
Another poem by an African American author Paul Lawrence Dunbar called, ?The Colored Soldier? depicts, as well as ?The Reason Why? how African American soldiers fought bravely for the union. I think its horrible especially the line ?They were good to stop a bullet And to front the fearful fray.? (African ? American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century) This shows how terrible it was on the blacks fighting for the south. It was terrible because the South, or the Union, was fighting to legalize slavery. They were used and abused as people. It seems they all stand so brave, I?m not sure everyone, but in the poems I have read they are all honored and proud to stand up for their rights. Again, in the poem ? The Colored Soldier? they refer to the American flag, which seems to be an aspect throughout my paper. Those are just a few poems that show the feelings and impact, poems had during the war. The exception being Caroline Ball?s ?The Jacket of Grey? and Henry Timrod?s ?Ode?, they dealt with the aftermath of the war.
The Essay on Civil War Soldiers Letter Home
Through out this winter the war was at are very gates, at times even in them. Towards the beginning of winter the Union army used are small town as a hospital. It was hard for my mom and one of my brothers to see them because they realized that the Confederates were losing; . The town was split every one knew who favored either side but no one would say anything to each other about it. Shortly ...
Another poem from the ?Union? I would like to touch upon ?The Dying Soldier? by an unknown author. He or she writes of the American flag like the other poems and of the honor and pride the soldiers and their families felt. ?But my dear old comrade?s heart will swell, I know with honest pride, When he thinks that for the grand old flag, His old companion died.? (Poetry and Music of the War at http://users.erols.com/kfraser/) It shows the relationship between two of the soldiers on the battlefield. There is an infinite amount of pride bestowed upon the soldiers. After the war, themes and topics seemed to change. It was still the ultimate effects of the war, but ordinary life was depicted in a whole new way when soldiers came home, dead or alive. Life was revived after the horrors of the war. Kate Putnam Osgood, in ?Driving Home the Cattle? tells about a son coming home to his father taking in the cattle. The touching part was the father had thought his son was dead. This is amazing when you think of how great the feelings were between the two of them at that moment. The poem says, ?For the Southern prisons will sometimes yawn, And the day that comes with cloudy dawn In golden glory at last may wane?.
There isn?t much sense to make of that line but the next verse is extremely touching. ?The great tears sprang to their meeting eyes; For the heart must speak when the lips are dumb; And under the silent evening skies, Together they followed the cattle home.? (The Columbia Book of Civil War Poetry- pg. 423) The way the author explains this I feel the tremendous joy for them. She talks of the father attending to everyday choirs, ?Driving Home the Cattle?. Here one gets the impression of the father?s loneliness. You started to feel bad and then in the end, you felt the happiness of the moment being described. Osgood uses everyday realism to get her point across, to express the feelings and emotions of the war. This poem is self-consciously spiritual, which is typical for the age of romanticism. The next poem exaggerates the joys of a soldier returning home a lot more dramatically than ?Driving Home the Cattle?.
The Essay on War Poems
Question: In what specific ways do Wilfred Owens poems attempt to dispel the illusions about the war represented in the art on pages 367-368? As the First World War raged through Europe many of the countries involved used posters to draw people to the cause. The posters located in the Human Record showed scenes of happiness and patriotism. People were seeing these posters and assuming that war was ...
?When Johnny Comes Marching Home?, by Patrick Sarsfeild Gilmore is not as appealing as ?Driving Home the Cattle? by Kate Osgood. The emotions felt from reading ?Driving Home the Cattle? were not there when reading ?When Johnny Came Marching Home?. Patrick Gilmore makes the scene very dramatic and he honors the soldiers in a different way than other poems mentioned in my paper. That is because during the war most of the poets tried to express the horrible effects on the people of America. Now that the war is over, life is going on, and people are now mourning, adjusting to, or celebrating the outcome.
In a poem by James Madison Bell, ?A Poem Entitled the Day and the War?; he speaks of the black brigades that were raised both in the North and South. This was the recruitment of black soldiers by the federal government in 1863. He writes this poem in remembrance of the twelve percent of the union army that was African American. This poem shares a similarity with ?The Colored Soldiers?. They both talk of the black brigade and ?Of the gallant colored soldiers Who fought for Uncle Sam? (African ? American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century pg. 391) as Dunbar puts it in his poem. Both poems talk of the realism in the fact that many blacks were forced into fighting for the South. As I have gone researched through some of the many poems of the Civil War, I have found a few things in common, many more than differences. Mostly all of the poems express the seriousness of the war and also the horrible effects it had on America, but in the end there are many good aspects of the war. All of the poems honor either the soldiers that fought on the battlefields or slaves that fought in what I?ll call the war within the war. The second ?war? being the one between black slaves and slave owners. Most of the poetry of the war was melodramatic in nature. Everything is imbued with the tragic or the heroic. That is what adds to the romanticism.
Bibliography:
1- American Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Cheryl Walker , 1992 by Rutgers, The State University 2- African-American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century An Anthology, edited by Joan R. Sherman, University of Illinois Press Urban and Chicago 1992 3- The Poetry of the American Civil War, edited by Lee Steinmetz 1960 Michigan State University Press 4- Poetry and Music of the War Between the States, created by Kathie Fraser 1983 by Swinging Door Music-BMI at http://users.erols.com/kfraser/ 5- The Columbia Book of Civil War Poetry, edited by Richard Marius, Columbia University Press, NY, Chichester, West Sussex 1994
The Essay on Entires Of An American Soldier fictional
These are journal entries of an American Solider named Private John G. Watson who was sent to Afghanistan to fight the war on terrorism. These are the last few entries in his journal before his convoy was ambushed and he was killed. He was only 21. August 2, 2001: So, I just got my draft slip in the mail. Looks like I am on my first assignment already.I mean, I just joined the army 5 months ago. ...
