Reading a War Poem

The idea

First World War poems divide by attitude, so read for it. First, find the attitude to the war: idealistic and patriotic, as in Brooke's "The Soldier," or bitter and documentary, as in Owen and Sassoon. Second, find the concrete detail: gas, trenches, wounds, which the later poets used to counter official language. Third, find the target: Owen calls Horace's patriotic motto "The old Lie," and Sassoon satirizes generals and civilians at home. Fourth, notice the form: Brooke's sonnet is polished, Owen's rhymes are often half-rhymes, and the irony may lie in a traditional form describing horror. Then state whether the poem honours or indicts the war, and by what means.