Question

Explain how war informs 20th century poetry in general

Answer 1

Killing until the first World War was linked to heroism, honor, duty etc. More people have died in war around the world than any other reason. Nearly 10 million soldiers and 7 million common men died during the first world war. If you recall the big wars in history, including the mythical Trojan war, people have died for no reason or someone's selfishness. The barbaric and animal instinct of killing started to fade away with the pain and suffering the wars brought after the first World War. Most of the war poets were soldiers themselves who witnessed and were part of it.
The themes of the 20th century war poems changed dramatically by leaving out the abstracts such as bravery and chivalry and focused more on the following.
1. The aftermath of war - Most of the war left lots of people killed, lots of people lose their loved ones, destroyed civilizations and properties. The aftermath of the war brought sea of change in the way people looked at we and the war poems reflected them heavily.
Growing skepticism on religion - The increasing skepticism on rigion was reflected in the war poems because religion was one fundamental reason for most of the wars in history. So, war poets were skeptical about religion and Gods and this resentment reflected in the poems.
Psychological impact - People who lost loved one and properties were affected by post traumatic stress disorder and they became psychologically imbalanced people.
Lack of rationale behind wars - At one point of time after the first World War, people, including soldiers lost their faith in wars because they didn't find any rationale behind it. There was no logic why they were fighting. They realised that they were fighting for few selfish people against their brothers and sisters. They were not able to fight because they started to sense a strong feeling of friendship and brotherhood rather than hatred and duty.