Poetry Reading

Earlier in the semester I attended a poetry reading at Reese Museum on the ETSU campus. The option to go was brought up in class. I have always been interested in poetry and loved hearing it. In high school we had a similar poetry reading and I loved it. Despite my love for poetry I did not have a positive attitude about going to this event. I thought that it was going to be super boring. I went into the poetry reading with a negative attitude but left feeling incredible. The event was very short, it seemed almost too short, but I was touched by so many different readings in such a short amount of time. One thing that stood out to me the most about their poetry was how real it was. This semester I have been reading poems that have been very difficult to understand and interpret. Their poems were flowing and alive. They had so much detail and emotion. I caught myself even tearing up at one of the poems which were about religion. Each of them was short stories and you could tell that the words meant so much to the poet that was reading them aloud. The audience did not understand every detail about each poem, of course, because they were personal events. Also, their poems did not have a certain structure or form. They were just free flowing. I am very glad that I went and experienced poetry from current writers.

Heard no more

"The Voice", by Hardy I thought was a great poem that showed hope but then an understating of the truth and realization. The poem is in the first person, with the speaker being Hardy. Hardy hears a voice calling to him that he believes is his wife that died. She tells him she has changed and she not who she use to be. He is hopeful in the beginning of the poem that the voice is his wife, but then realizes it is just the breeze and his imagination. towards the end of the poem he realizes that he will never hear her voice again an that she is truly gone and will never be heard again. I think this is something that most people that have lost someone close to them can relate to. He is sad that she is gone and does not want to believe it at first. When he remembers her he pictures her at her best when they got married. When people die you like to remember the good things about them and in this poem this is what Hardy does. He wants so try and keep a connection with his wife but then realizes he has to move on because she will be heard no more.

The Duty of a Soldier

One poem that I was hoping we would read but never touched on was Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade." This poem is one of Tennyson's most famous pieces and is alluded to in countless pieces of writing, film and other entertainment mediums. In it Tennyson praises the bravery of the British Dragoons who made a suicide charge against Russian cannons during the Crimean War. Tennyson narrates in a lyrical ballad the story of the Light Brigade as they rode into "the jaws of death." It is written to sound swift like a cavalry charge with the words making sounds like the thunder of hoofs on a plain. The second stanza contains what many modern military historians consider to be the best summary of the duty of a soldier; "Theirs not to make reply,/ Theirs not to reason why,/ Theirs but to do and die." Soldiers are never to question orders and just do them without hesitation. Tennyson seems to believe that this shows the utmost bravery as one must march unquestioningly to their death without remorse or fear. Willingly sacrificing themselves for an officer's say so, even if it is a mistake as the real Charge of the Light Brigade was.

World War One Poetry

I wouldn't say that I had one specific piece that was my favorite as all of the World War One poets struck me as profound and interesting. The way that some of them found beauty in one of the most horrid wars was something that always struck me with awe. Living in such horrid conditions as they did how could they see such beauty in the world, the poppies in the fields of Flanders, or see the beauty in what they were doing for their homeland. Yet in sharp contrast there is also the horror that they write about like the lost generation of young men who went off to war and never returned to be fathers, friends or sons to their mothers, or the treachery of nationalism that sent them off to die trying to find some glorification for it. It was interesting to read all the different perspectives of the war and how people learned form it and tried to teach those lessons to the future generations.

Anti-Patriot

The poem "Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries" by A.E. Housman is a poem that criticizes the use of hired guns with no loyalty to the nation rather than regular foot soldiers who would have a sense of patriotism and love of the homeland. Specifically talking about the First Battle of Ypres where territorial soldiers broke and fled from the German advance while the professional soldiers of the British standing army held ranks and took on the brunt of the German forces, Housman called mercenary soldiers unpatriotic claiming that all they do is take their wages and run. Comparing the British regulars to Atlas, he praises them for holding up the sky while the mercenaries run as it falls. By standing they keep the Earth from parting and defend what the mercenaries think God abandons. By staying and fighting they save their payment, not money but life and the ability to go home to their families and loved ones.