Isc English for 11 and 12 Std
In “Church Going”, the poet expresses the same disrespectfulness towards church as “In Westminster Abbey. ” The Church, also known as the house of God, is seen by the poet as a current building and all being alike, “another church: matting, seats, and stone… ” some brass and stuff” which gives the reader a very dismissive attitude fromthe poet. He agrees with Betjeman that the church disserves no believe or respect “Hatless, I take off my cycle-clips in awkward reverence. Instead of commenting on the beauty of the church, he looks at the roof asking himself if it is “cleaned, or restored”” It seems that the poet is even more disrespectful than Betjeman donating an Irish sixpence and then further emphasizing, “reflect the place was not worth stopping for. ” The poet is for sure that churches will fall down except for some, which will be kept as a chronic symbol where women will bring their children to touch a particular stone believing that they will work as a spell. His opinion is that “superstition, like belief, must die. This supposes a strong blow againstthe church and towards believe. Philip Larkin asks himself who will be the last to see the church before it deteriorates completely “some ruin-bibber” some “Christmas-addict” someone obsessed with church or someone just like him who has no believe or sympathy withthe church. For the poet, the church is the place of marriage, birth and death and believes that that causes people to become fanatic towards church because they see it as the place that marks the most important points of life.
Larkin also sees the church trying to make people see natural things of life such as birth and having children as being in their destiny and that people will always look for the spiritual side. In conclusion, I would say that the poets are conscious of the poetic diction they use in order to bring through their feelings about the church. They do not see any reason or need for which religion and believe exist and want superstition to be gotten rid of.
They see the Church as a place, which manipulates people for their own benefit. The use of less poetic devices such as “oh bomb the Germans” in “In Westminster Abbey” or “bored, uniformed, knowing the ghostly silt” in “Church Going” does not suggest that this in any way makes the poems less “poetic” in any sense at all. John Betjeman and Philip Larkin seem to be wanting the readers to be aware of the church and protect them from it.
Summary: Wilfred Owen’s poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth” is typical of Owen’s abrupt, straightforward, and abrasive approach to describing war. Owen states in the poem’s beginning that soldiers die on the battlefield as cattle in a slaughterhouse; with little meaning, and with no loved ones there to comfort them. The end of the poem is more sentimental; while no funeral takes place on the battlefield, all individuals have something resembling a funeral, even if it takes the form only of their loved ones weeping.
The poem’s overall tone indicates that Owen resents promoters of war who do not consider the full magnitude of war and pities the soldiers who know not what may happen to them. {draw:rect} Known for his abrasive and heart-wrenching depictions of war, Wilfred Owen is known for going right to the heart of the reader through his poetry to evoke his or her raw emotions. In the poem, “Anthem For Doomed Youth”, Owen once again finds the shortest and most abrupt and straight-forward descriptions he possibly can to describe soldiers being slaughtered on the battlefield.
Not only is Owen describing their deaths, but he is describing, how they die: with indifference among them. There is no separate emotion for each man, they die all the same, like cattle going off to the slaughterhouse. The poet appears to be portraying war as a situation that one should avoid, because although one is dying for their country, initially, their death is one of little meaning. They are not among family and…..
