Owen and Hardy- poems

Essay by TaKarraLUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, September 2004

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In "Channel Firing" by T. Hardy and "Miners" by W. Owens both poets are conveying that they see war in a negative light, but they are showing us from different perspectives. Thomas Hardy is more unique than Owen in his style of writing, he wrote about idealistic views, but he never actually went to war, he never had the first hand knowledge, his poetry was speculation and imagination. Owens on the other hand shows the reader what the conditions were really like during the First World War and to make it clear that the events that surrounded him, were not pleasant.

Hardy uses his imagination to create a discussion between God and skeletons in their coffins in "Channel Firing" . Although it is a humorous poem it is very critical in its scornful condemnation of man's incorrigible desire for conflict. Hardy injects a recollection of what war was to those who fought and died in previous years under the thunder of other guns, and how much worse it might be this time because "nations [are] striving strong to make red war yet redder...."(11.13-14).

Hardy makes no description of the sound of the gunfire, but he gives us a dimension of the sound by describing of the reaction of the nocturnal beasts and the buried dead. It is known that the sound "shook all [their] coffins as [they] lay" (1.2) and "arose the howl of wakened hounds" (1.6).

God's voice in this poem seems to be used to convey messages that Hardy thinks are very important, things so important God would actually say them. For instance, Hardy condemns the threatening fire of the gunnery practice just offshore so God says " For if it were they'd have to scour Hell's floor for so much threatening that Hell awaits the warriors for...