An example – war poems

My nemesis Mr Haseler tells me he is going to give some information for yr9 students on war poems as that is their current area of study. It reminded me of a poem I once wrote for a magazine. It was way back in my artistic heyday when not only was i walking around with my notebook in hand I also took to carry a sketch pad around with me as well. Art had always been a bit of a passion of mine and having had a couple of pieces in galleries I was always much encouraged to keep doing it.

Anyway the magazine had asked if i could do something war related as they were doing a special on modern and contemporary poems on war and conflict. This was ok, I’d thought, because I’d been toying with the idea of some sort of war poem. I’d recently read stories about eastern european countries where they had massive ceremonies when their soldiers went off to war. During these ceremonies the soldiers would walk through pebbled towns as those they left behind, wives, children etc, lined the streets and would throw flowers down at their feet to celebrate the fact that the men of the town were going to fight for them. This picture stuck in my mind so I put a couple of notes down but no more. Then when I had been asked to write this poem I went back over my notes and started to think about the kind of voice that I might use for the poem. I could have chosen one of the by standers, maybe a wife. It would certainly have given me something to work with. I could have looked at her feelings, was she happy the men were going off to fight or was she sad, angry about it. There could have been a conflict in her feelings and this could have played out against the conflict of war itself. I started to work along these lines but nothing clicked. It wasn’t until i changed the voice to that of one of the soldiers did things start to sound like what i was trying to create.

Part of the reason for this blog is to help people learn about the process of writing. In seeing how a poem is put together hopefully it will help show this in action and give a better understanding. As you can see below i changed the voice to that of the soldier. I kept, as most war poems do a feel of marching to the poem with short staccato sentences and repetition and played on the idea of the conflict going on in the soldier. He knows what he is doing is both wrong and right. There are also some political views about how an army is viewed – not as individuals but as one and the fact that those controlling armies view them as this. In future posts I will continue to explain the processes of writing with examples.

When the Bell Tolls

 

When the bell tolls

I will go

Not turn my head

for those I leave behind

 

When the bell tolls

I will go

Not shed a tear

for those I meet in the future

 

When the drums roll

I will follow

Standing tall

feet carrying me away

 

When the drums roll

I will follow

their pounding

carrying me forward

 

When they march forward

I will join

Swelling their ranks

emptying my mind

 

When they march forward

I will join

with tunnel vision

seeing only the head in front

 

When the bell tolls

remember me always

 

When the drum rolls

be proud

 

When they march forward

forgive me

~ by monkswalklibrary on December 3, 2009.