The Tragedy of War: Poetry, Propaganda and PTSD. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the United States thirty fourth president, once stated,

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1 Summers 1 Katie Summers New Historical ENGL November 2014 The Tragedy of War: Poetry, Propaganda and PTSD President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the United States thirty fourth president, once stated, I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. Known for his courageous acts of heroism during wartime, President Eisenhower did not always hate war. In fact, most of his life revolved around war World War I, World War II, and The Cold War and he spent his passion on wartime efforts. After high school in 1911, Eisenhower attended West Point and afterwards served the next few years at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas (Miller Center University of Virginia). According to the WGBH Educational Foundation, waiting was not a new experience for Dwight Eisenhower. During nearly 30 years of military service he had waited for an opportunity to lead men on the field of battle (Eisenhower: Early Career). Eisenhower was nearly fifty years old when he saw and led military action in the midst of World War II. Those thirty years leading up to battle the romanticism that comes with war ended with Eisenhower seeing vicious violence and death. Although he was able to push the Germans in North Africa and move into Italy, his near 60,000 men army suffered much loss. (Eisenhower: Early Career). Only in battle could Eisenhower see the brutality of war. His along with countless soldier s romantic image of courage and heroism on the battlefield became clouded with visions of death. Where he once loved war or rather the idea of war hatred took its place.

2 Summers 2 Famous war poet, Wilfred Owen, like Eisenhower, saw the truth about war: the brutality, the futility, and the stupidity. He, too, romanticized war and only came to realize his hatred for it two days into battle. Owen spent years thinking it was his duty to fight for his country, to fight or to die a hero. However, once Owen saw combat, he realized this romantic image of war most likely built up through war propaganda was false. He saw a war filled with violence and death, he saw no heroes. Owen began writing poetry as a means of coping with the images he saw, and as a means of combating his shell shock. (A term now referred to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Furthermore, he uses his poetry to show readers the brutality, the futility of war. So just as war propaganda meant to unite allies by romanticizing war, Owen wrote his own type of war propaganda that showcased the truth. And even though Owen wrote his poetry after his experiences in World War I, over a century ago because he captures the truth about war, his poems remain timely to veterans who face the tragedies in war today. Born on March 18, 1893, Owen grew up in Oswestry, England with his mother and father Thomas and Susan Owen. Owen and his mother, a strict Calvinist, had a strong relationship, and when Owen could not afford to attend the University of London, Susan convinced Owen to explore a vocation in religion. He worked as a lay person at a parish in Oxfordshire helping parishioners who were poor and sick cope with their illnesses, much like how his own poetry helped him cope with his illness. After realizing that the Church of England needed to do more to help those in need, Owen moved to France where he spent two years teaching different languages. In 1915, a year or so after the start of World War I, Owen returned to his home in England and decided it was his duty to enlist in the war. Douglas Keesey, in a biography on Owen, claims that:

3 Summers 3 Like many young men of his generation, Owen went to war imagining that it would be a glorious adventure. Politicians had said that it was noble and heroic to die for one s country; religious leaders had described the battle as a holy war and the men as Christian soldiers fighting in a just cause; poets through the ages had written war poems that made fighting sound like a romantic adventure, a chance for individuals to prove their strength in combat (Wilfred Owen). Just as Eisenhower went off to war with this romantic image of heroism and the fulfillment of duty, Owen did the same. But both realized that war was not about heroism and duty, it revolved around death. Keesey claims that, after Owen had actually seen combat [g]one was the earlier belief in war as a heroic adventure. Now, Owen described the blasted battlefield as an inferno of mud and thunder (Wilfred Owen). To describe this image of a blasted battlefield to the rest of the world, Owen dedicated his free time to writing poetry describing the truth about the war, not clouded by romantic images of heroism. In a short biography of Wilfred Owen, the editors of The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O Clair share that war has always been a favorite subject of poets, but the pity as distinguished from the heroism of war is a modern emphasis. The Poetry is in the pity, Wilfred Owen wrote in the draft preface to a book of verse he did not live to see published (523). Wilfred Owen seemed to use war as a favorite subject; however, instead of romanticizing war, Owen focused on the tragedy of war, the pity. He wanted to let men know what they were truly signing up for when joining the cause. Author Douglas Keesey, in a biography on Owen claims:

4 Summers 4 Owen believed that too many of the war poems written in the past had been glorifications of war, praising soldiers as if they were heroes dying noble deaths. Owen intended to write antiwar poetry; he would flout convention and take words and phrases that earlier poets had used to romanticize war and alter them so that they told the truth: War is a senseless waste of young lives, and is not about the making of heroes. Owen wanted readers to be shocked by the violent and bloody meaninglessness of war, but he also wanted them to feel sympathy for all the dead and dying (Wilfred Owen). Falling victim to these tragedies and horrors, specifically the effects of shell shock, Owen used his writing as a way to cope and speak about his experiences as a soldier. Like any soldier who has fought in combat and has experienced the life threatening events of war, Owen began feeling intense anxiety, often occurring as flashbacks or a loss of memories. He uses his shocking experiences as inspiration for his writing, as well as a deterrent, discouraging young men from blindly joining a war that would make them into "gallant" and "noble heroes. Owen who fell prey to these notions that idealized the war and the patriotic death of a soldier wanted to reveal the truth about war experiences. Keesey writes that, Like many young men of his generation, Owen went to war imagining that it would be a glorious adventure. Politicians had said that it was noble and heroic to die for one s country; religious leaders had described the battle as a holy war and the men as Christian soldiers fighting in a just cause; poets through the ages had written war poems that made fighting sound like a romantic adventure, a chance for individuals to prove their strength in combat. Owen s first letters from the front praised his company s fine heroic spirit and romanticized the sound of its guns as having a certain sublimity (Wilfred Owen).

5 Summers 5 Arguably, Owen wanted to become the spokesperson for the truth about war and about the life of a soldier. He wanted other young men to realize that war was not some way to prove they had enough strength or patriotism, he wanted them to realize that war was horrific and tragic, scary and damaging. In one particular poem, Dulce et Decorum Est, Owen addresses these politicians, religious leaders, and poets that falsely claim joining the war was noble and heroic. John Hughes, author of Owen s: Dulce et Decorum Est claims this poems and its undeflectable intensity and antiwar intent [and] with unconsoling truthfulness and the pity of war (Letters 31), has made it possibly the most taught of any poem, the most unfailing resource for teachers in schools and universities everywhere (1). This poem acts as a type of propaganda, but instead of promoting war making war seem as heroic and romantic Owen s propaganda shows the truth about war, shows its violence and death. Furthermore, Owen outright addresses this propaganda and states, My friend [producer of war propaganda], you would not tell with such high zest / To children ardent for some desperate glory, / The old Lie (25 27). This lie the speaker of the poem points out claims it is sweet and proper to die for one s country (527). For Owen and Eisenhower fighting in the war was not a romantic adventure and Owen claims propaganda should not have been used as a weapon to unite the allies. Arguably, Owen s life as a soldier was the hardest life he had to endure. Like Eisenhower, Owen like any soldier who had seen combat hated war. In this same poem, Owen s speaker describes the soldiers in the trenches as old beggars...knock kneed, coughing like hags...cursed through sludge...many had lost their boots / But limped on, blood shod. All went lame; all blind; drunk with fatigue (1 7). Yes, the politicians, religious leaders, and poets

6 Summers 6 at the time might have glorified the war, but Owen argues there is nothing romantic about sludging through the trenches exhausted and on the brink of death. Conceivably, Owen creates speakers after his own experiences, those who express the difficulties of war. Keesey writes that: Owen and his men slogged through two and a half miles of trenches that had filled with rainwater, turning the dirt to heavy mud. Because of the constant firing, there was rarely any chance for soldiers to change their wet, frozen clothes. The shrill wail of incoming shells made it impossible for the men to get any sleep. One night, Owen was blown right out of his trench by a shell that landed only six feet away; he discovered that the officer next to him had been buried alive in the blast (Wilfred Owen). Clearly, readers especially those who have experienced war sympathize with Owen s experiences, the experiences of walking for miles, exhausted, freezing and hungry, while being shot at. Owen hoped his writing would lead others to realize the lack of romanticism in war. Just as war propaganda meant to unite allies by romanticizing war, Owen wrote his own type of war propaganda that showcased the truth. And even though Owen wrote his poetry after his experiences in World War I, over a century ago because he captures the truth about war, his poems remain timely to veterans who face the tragedies in war today. Eventually, though, Owen died a week before Armistice day in Barely twenty five years old, nothing about Owen s death was romantic. Nothing about his experiences in the war were romantic. He certainly did not find war to be an adventure, or a feat to prove his manly strength. No, war was a struggle which should not have been taken lightly. He wanted his readers to see the truth about war, he wanted them to find the pity, the tragedy, the brutality in the death and destruction of war.

7 Summers 7 Works Cited Early Career. Eisenhower. WGBH Educational Foundation, Web. 15 Nov Hughes, John. "Owen's 'Dulce Et Decorum Est'." Explicator 64.3 (2006): MLA International Bibliography. Web. 17 Nov Keesey, Douglas. "Wilfred Owen." Magill S Survey Of World Literature, Revised Edition (2009): 1 5. Literary Reference Center. Web. 11 Nov Life Before the Presidency. American President. Miller Center University of Virginia, Web. 15 Nov The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. Eds. Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O Clair. New York, W.W. Norton and Company: 2003.