Poem Analysis
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- Category: English: Poetic Works
- Date Submitted: 03/12/2014 10:07 PM
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Poem Analysis: Break of Day in the Trenches
Isaac Rosenberg was considered one of the finest First World War poets. His poem reflects his outlook and feelings towards the participation of war, in which he had experienced the horrible involvement of the trench warfare as a front-line soldier. His participation in war drove him to continually express his detestation for the war in his letters and poems. His abhorrence in war caused the majority of his poems to express uttermost irony. In Break of Day in the Trenches, Rosenberg reveals his perspective on the futility of war using symbolic images of a rat, to a creature that benefits and a poppy as a flower that can grow from dead corpses. The poet has used vivid imagery, symbolism, phonetic techniques, along with other techniques to achieve and express the irony and bitterness he felt towards war.
In this piece, Rosenberg’s usage of the relationship between humans and animals offers the readers to point out the irony of war. In the first verse, the poet introduces the two symbolic images used in the course of the poem, the rat and the poppy. As the poem continues, the soldier talks to the rat, as he says that the rat will be safe from the commotion going on between the two fronts, while he would not. The poet uses irony proposing the idea that the rat, describing it as being “cosmopolitan”, the lowest form of life survives and is joyous in this situation. Generally, the world sees the rat as being a demonic creature; in this case the poem gives qualities to the rat as if it seems to understand the significance of the situation. Men are dying and suffering while the rat freely “…cross[es] the sleeping green between” (12), viewing the situation in almost wonderment at their unnatural terror; “Sprawled in the bowels of the earth“(17), benefiting and surviving from dead corpses. From the perspective of the rat, Rosenberg considers the reversal of the situation of which the rat has a better chance of survival by...
A...
Isaac Rosenberg was considered one of the finest First World War poets. His poem reflects his outlook and feelings towards the participation of war, in which he had experienced the horrible involvement of the trench warfare as a front-line soldier. His participation in war drove him to continually express his detestation for the war in his letters and poems. His abhorrence in war caused the majority of his poems to express uttermost irony. In Break of Day in the Trenches, Rosenberg reveals his perspective on the futility of war using symbolic images of a rat, to a creature that benefits and a poppy as a flower that can grow from dead corpses. The poet has used vivid imagery, symbolism, phonetic techniques, along with other techniques to achieve and express the irony and bitterness he felt towards war.
In this piece, Rosenberg’s usage of the relationship between humans and animals offers the readers to point out the irony of war. In the first verse, the poet introduces the two symbolic images used in the course of the poem, the rat and the poppy. As the poem continues, the soldier talks to the rat, as he says that the rat will be safe from the commotion going on between the two fronts, while he would not. The poet uses irony proposing the idea that the rat, describing it as being “cosmopolitan”, the lowest form of life survives and is joyous in this situation. Generally, the world sees the rat as being a demonic creature; in this case the poem gives qualities to the rat as if it seems to understand the significance of the situation. Men are dying and suffering while the rat freely “…cross[es] the sleeping green between” (12), viewing the situation in almost wonderment at their unnatural terror; “Sprawled in the bowels of the earth“(17), benefiting and surviving from dead corpses. From the perspective of the rat, Rosenberg considers the reversal of the situation of which the rat has a better chance of survival by...
A...