Explore the ways in which ‘They’ by Sassoon relates to ‘Peace’ by Brookes’

Sassoon’s poem ‘They’ laughs at the authorities and directly shows upon the impact of war on the lives of soldiers and on its ridiculousness. ‘Peace’ by Brookes is more as if a sonnet to death, in which the drained soldier souls are showed wanting to die than to continue this pointless life. Both have similarities in showing how war affects an individual, but both do it in a different way. ‘They’ – two perspectives = authority and soldier perspective on the impacts of war on individuals and physical impacts on soldiers, ‘Peace’ – psychical impacts of war on individuals leading to despair and desire for death.

‘They’ by Sassoon has a humanistic approach and viewpoint of the War. He uses simple wording to pursue his ides, which makes it easy to read and understand. The simplicity makes the meaning of the poem stand out. It has a sarcastic tone, most visible in ‘The ways of God are strange!’ said by the bishop in the last line. ‘Peace’ is a slightly more complicated poem, The poem shows us the biased view of the church (authority) on war ‘In a just cause, they lead the last attack On Anti-Christ’. Death is mentioned in ‘They’ as a someone they have challenged and won over. ‘They have challenged Death and dared him face to face’ capital D in Death – important, equal, big, strong(er), ...compared to soldiers. Death is also mentioned in ‘Peace’ by Brooke, but is pictured more as the end only, not something one can win over. ‘The worst friend and enemy is but Death’- enemy the same as in Sassoon, but friend isn’t mentioned in ‘They’. Death as a friend – gives an end to the suffering. War changes priorities, makes death a solution, a choice that one would not consider in normal life. ‘When the boys come back they will not be the same’ (They) - war changes a person. This idea is also mentioned in ‘Peace’ by Brooke in lines 2-8. It seems as if a transformation takes place between the 2-8th line. Transformation of the soldiers, the young boys that went into war ‘caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping’ – the war stopped their lives when they were still young, ’wakened us from sleeping’- took them out from normal life – dream, simple, easy (compared to war) and ‘threw’ them into the reality – war, death. Here they were drained and ruined by the despair and nonsense of war for an individual. ‘Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move’ – soldiers are starting to loose the sense of this all, honour is no longer strong enough to make them fight for their countries, they are loosing them point in being in war, buy seeing what it really takes. In ‘They’ there is a definite idea of how war changes an individual. ‘We’re none of us the same!’ but in this poem it is meant more in the physical way ‘For George lost his legs, and Bill is stone blind...’ than in the psychical way as in ‘Peace’. In ‘Peace’ a feeling of a psychical battle of the soldier occurs. The feeling of despair and of the soldier loosing the sense of love and positive emotions. ‘emptiness of love!’ ‘no ill, no grief...’ ‘Nothing to shake the laughing heart’s long peace there’. The war has a strong psychical impact and ones who survive physically will never be the same psychically, as the things they experienced changed their view on the world completely
Both these poems show upon the impacts war has on human beings. Sassoon’s poem is more simplistic and easier to understand. Yet it has a certain hidden sarcasm about it, laughing at the higher positioned ones, which never had a direct experience with war. Brooke’s poem ‘Peace’ points out the feelings of despair that occur throughout war. These feelings are so strong that they lead to soldiers pleading for death, rather than to continue on living the life of a blunt instrument of killing. ‘Peace’ is darker and deeper than ‘They’. It deals with the emotional confusion and human emptiness that take place in a soldier’s life. Also, ‘They’ conveys the idea of death, pain and the nonsense of war but in a more straightforward even funny way. Sassoon makes fun of the authorities, whereas Brooke concentrates on emotions and the emotional change war has on a soldier. Sassoon does not hide behind metaphors but unambiguously points out the reality, which makes his poetry so strong. The cause of war is in the leaders, which don’t experience its reality.

Appendix

‘Peace’

Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the little emptiness of love!
Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release there,
Where there's no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending,
Naught broken save this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.

Rupert Brooke


'They'
The Bishop tells us: 'When the boys come back'
They will not be the same; for they'll have fought
'In a just cause: they lead the last attack
'On Anti-Christ; their comrades' blood has bought
'New right to breed an honourable race,
'They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.'

'We're none of us the same!' the boys reply.
'For George lost both his legs; and Bill's stone blind;
'Poor Jim's shot through the lungs and like to die;
'And Bert's gone syphilitic: you'll not find
'A chap who's served that hasn't found some change.
' And the Bishop said: 'The ways of God are strange!'
Siegfried Sassoon

Ta je rano...pomaly sa balim do BA...a pocuvam totu pesnicku, nova od Coldplayu, prvy singel k novemu albumu



poradil mi ju Fajdžura...a prvy krat jak som si ju vzpocula nic moc, ale jak som si kukla lyrics tha...
fajna je....


Violet Hill Lyrics

You there?

Why cant I see you

Why cant I feel you

Because I dont want to

But when I do want

Is it not only my want

That creates you?


No it is not

because even when I dont want

you are here.

NewMays Resolution

I have decided to post more frequently here from now on...hopefully...

btw. I am listening to the second album of Bloc Party A Weekend In The City right now, I downloaded it yesterday and its great!

http://www.myspace.com/blocparty

I need to write my World Literature essay for English, comparing Death in Venice and 20 love songs and a song of despair from Pablo neruda...and somehow I just cant force my self to do it...I have 1000 words, but they arent great so I will not write any more here...and I will start doing it.

Devin Run

How shall I begin... running this run was a very nice experience. I am happy to have taken part in it, even though I was indecisive only 2 days before, if I should go at all. But even though I might have felt unprepared , therefore a bit scared (if I'll get to the end and whether I’d finish last) I am happy that I decided to go in the end... We should not be scared to do new things even if we are not fully prepared to do them, because then we will maybe never do them, and at the end of the day every experience counts... whether good or bad....I am not trying to say that one should not prepare properly, but that one does not have to be perfectly prepared to manage something. My training was not that thorough, and 12 km is quite a distance, + doing IB, one does not have that much free time to go running regularly (well maybe one does, but I don’t want to blame my insufficient training on my laziness).

Roughly a week or two after I started running from my own initiative I found out about this run. I started, because I felt that I simply needed to do some sport, as IB workload was getting to my sanity and me (and still is). I knew that through sport one forgets about all strains of life and receives endorphins, feels happy, what more do you need. Running also improves ones health, decreases blood pressure, reduces risk of coronary heart disease and much more. Most of all, running improves your concentration. By running the blood flows more into the brain. (at least so they say...)

After finding out about Devin run I was more motivated , but also started to feel certain pressure. I had to run regularly now, if I wanted to achieve the ability to run a 12km distance at the end. Doesn’t sound complicated. I had written down exact days when I ought to have ran in my calendar...well, that helped me a bit. But it frequently happened that instead of three times a week (my aim) I went only once or twice or not at all. All together, I managed to go running around 17 times in 2 and half months which isn’t bad, but could have been better. Overall my final time could have been better than 1.11.41 if I had kept to my schedule. I had an aim and determination, but when it came to keeping some exact times of when I was supposed to go running I often failed. One also needs a strong sense of self-discipline to complete an aim, which I had, but I would not mind having more of it.

However my insufficient self discipline didn’t delay the big day’s arrival. We all (BISB Running Team) met up at the parking place under the Devin castle, where we waited until the run began. We were getting ready for our run, warming up, stretching a bit and changing our socks...

At 10:00am, (roughly) ‘the show’ began. It was funny at first, as all the people were so crammed up that one could walk, and not run. However, after the first 100 meters, the space loosened up a bit, and everyone got his or her few square metres on the road. My first 6 km were fine if not brilliant, if I can say so myself, but after that I started to feel the consequences of the unkempt training programme.

After 6km I started having slight problems. My legs were ok, but I simply could not keep up the pace I had up to that point. I had to slow down, and at about the 9th km even walk for a minute or two. However, I rather did that than having to be picked up by an ambulance from total exhaustion. As, for example, I saw one girl of my age, vomiting when getting into the ambulance. I do not wish to put anybody off from running by mentioning this, but one should also see the downsides. See that one must have accomplishable aims and know his or her abilities, not trying to do more then one really can manage. I think it was a better decision to walk a few meters and then start running again than faint somewhere from exhaustion. It was not embarrassing to walk a bit and hence enabling myself to reach the finishing line, instead of pushing my limits too far.

It was lovely how random people cheered you on, when they saw that you were out of energy. Encouraging us, saying that its not far to go, giving me a feeling that I can really do it. Approaching the finish line, which was very near to Novy Most I knew that I could do it when(Novy Most) started appearing on the horizon , and I did not hesitate and ran the whole last kilometre and a half at a reasonable pace. The last 100metres I even attempted to sprint and I overtook a few people.

My final time was as already mentioned: “1.11.41”. I was the 143rd from 200 competitors in my category (women 15-34years). Not the best, but I am quite satisfied with the result .It’s taking part that counts, not winning (a bit of a cliché, but true). In addition, I have the good feeling of doing something for my health. My aim for the next year is to keep to my training schedule properly, therefore hoping to finish in the first half of runners and to improve my time... enhancing my chances, and of course persuading more of you couch potatoes to go running and train.

akoze ja som tu 7 mesiacov nic nenapisala...hm...asi to bude tym, ze som sla do Ba a tam nemam az taky pristup k netu...zatial...ale pravdu povediac zrejme som viac leniva...

ale tak som sa rozhodla ze nateraz tu zverejnim len jednu essay co som prave dopisala...na predmet Theory Of Knowledge...zneje to komplikovane aj je...ale v pohode predmet...daco jak filozofia, psychologia atd...dokopy...

‘…we will always learn more about human life and human personality from novels then from scientific psychology... ‘ Noam Chomsky

It is true that books have always been the silent tellers of human destinies and thoughts. They have been witnesses of human thoughts, leaving one mind, and entering million others, for centuries.

Going through the bookshelves in a store and seeing all the different books, hundreds of them, millions, I always wonder...What do they all write about? Why are there so many different books? Will there never be a book about everything? The only answer to this is, that there are so many different human lives, so much of different human experience...that no, there will never be enough books to tell all human stories. Every human life is unique; every experience in a human life is unique. Even if two humans experience the same, still they experience something different, because they themselves are different from each other.

Who are the writers? Usually people, who have the need to express something, pass something on. Either to share their experience or just write down, their ideas, their imaginations, made up or real worlds, invented or real characters. Even if they are invented, they are real...in the authors head. All thoughts from his head are real, they exist, and they persist to exist in books.

However, to what extent can one write down this ideas on paper? How much do these ideas change before they get from the brain, through the nerves into the hand holding a pen onto the paper? It may be only a few milliseconds for a human being, but it is a long time for the brain. Long enough for it to think about the thought, long enough for it to change the thought into something more acceptable, understandable. What are thoughts and how do they transform into words? Why do they do so? Why is communication through language the pinnacle of communication?

At the moment I am trying to formulate the ideas of mine in a way that can make the reader to understand. Which makes me think, is there any other way of communicating my ideas? No matter how hard I try, I always write down things in a way for others to understand, but I am slightly aware that I evaluate what I write down, before I write it down, and that my original thoughts are not always what end up on the paper. Does that mean that I am dishonest? Is it even possible to write in a stream of consciousness style? Why is it so natural for us not to express immediate thoughts into language? Sometimes we are incapable to express our selves through language. What are the alternatives? In addition, if there are some can we express ourselves fully through them? Can one express more through art, music or other forms of art? (’Music expresses that which cannot be said on which it is impossible to be silent’ Viktor Hugo)

I would think that novels are a very good way of how to get an insight into the depths of an unclear human sole, which one could not normally get. Only how much can books actually tell us? They tell us only what the author wants to tell us, or thinks he is telling us. Secondly, they tell us only as much as we find in them. Our opinions change, and reading the same book let’s say, 5 years later, can be a whole new experience, the reason is we look at things differently...Are novels always credible? If not they are not very accurate...and again, to what extent does the written represent the truth?

Scientific psychology, on the other hand...is more distant for most of us. I am sure it can explain some aspects of human nature with greater accuracy then novels do, but novels are here for everyone whilst science only for the scientists. Therefore, anyone can read novels, but only the ’chosen ones’ have full access to scientific truths. That does not explain if books or science are more accurate, but it shows upon which is more accessible and understandable for the majority of us, which makes it in a way the more accurate one.

Also imagine the number of books written throughout the human existence, millions...and how much scientific research about human psychology has there been? It is one of the youngest sciences. In books, we can see many different viewpoints, opinions, experiences...through science, only the one scientific viewpoint with a conclusion, or no conclusion at all. In addition, I think that human psychology is to complex and complicated to be classified into a scientific truth, fact or to be generalized.

It is also good and important to have a look at the author of the statement, to discover more about its origin, and from that further one can try to evaluate why this statement could be true? If we try to look at it from the authors perspective, we understand why he said what he said better, and this will make us either agree or disagree with it more straightforwardly.

Noam Chomsky is a prominent linguist; he studies the origin, use, symbolic meaning, and decline of languages and words. From his point of view, he can probably see a lot more than an average person from novels and written works. He observes the state of mind of an author, characters created, etc. simply from the choice of words used. However, the statement could also mean that we (the laypeople of the world) determine the meaning of the world around us not by scientific works, but by the popular media. For example if the theory that the world was flat was presented to us in a convincing and catchy kind of way, we may accept if for a fact and base our behaviour on the misconception.

I think Chomsky as a linguist had a bigger interest for books than a regular person, and investigated the hidden meanings of words in novels more then a normal reader would. That is why I also think that as he was immersed in his job, he really could discover more in novels than we do. Does that mean that novels are really what he claims them to be?

What about the scientific point of view? If psychology did not exist today, we would still claim many psychical disorders for something else. We would think of many people as crazy, when really they only suffer from a simple, curable psychological disorder.

My personal opinion is that science is able to be more accurate. It is because science is not words but research. Only there are millions of novels and only few scientific publications about the secrets of human personality, therefore we can find out more from novels.

However, after comparing science and novels, with regard to what extent the reveal human psychology and behaviour...I still think Life is the only thing that tells us the most. Books can be useful messengers, science can be a useful clarifier but only life itself is the best teacher.

gratulujem ak ste sa dostali az sem...ja osobne by som to nedocitala...:)

So, the updates on my current life in Bratislava for anyone interested in them...

Well my first proper week of school is behind me and I must say, I've enjoyed it.

I'm still not quite sure about my subject choices, but I believe that I will manage to choose them corectly and be happy with them for the rest of my life . The main reason why I'm not sure about them is because I think that it's a decision, sortof for the rest of my life. The subjects I choose now will be the subjects I'll study at Uni and will be the job I'll do...for the rest of my life(that would be ideal... :)

So can you please help me and answer this question...

Should I be a Bioscientist or an Artist?Any ideas?

:)

By the time you'll answer this(if you answer atall) it will probably be to late to change my subjects again, but atleast I'll find out....about other opinions.
If you have any about this, and if someone is reading this atall...:)

and at the end of this post just one more question

why are decisions so hard?

So, I'm writing from England this time, well where should I start...It's the begining of the second week that I'm here. Time flies really, but there's a nother 4 weak infront of me, so I can't complain.

Life's been fine, here so far. I found a job, it's not to demanding, it's selling bags.It's just a special shop that is opened for a few weeks, all bags for 2.99 or in the midle row for 99p..:))
I work from 12.00-18.00, and weekends are of. And I hade a day of today to, because it wasn't to bussy in the shop.Enough about my job...

I'm living at my sisters boyfriends mum. In a nice little room.

The first week were(I, my sister Maya, her boyfriend Mark and our Auntie Trudy)in a holiday camp. We thought we would be living in a caravan, but it was a small vila in the end. When I say vila don't imagine anything to exspensive. It was allright, but quite small for four people, but just fine...
It was in Brixham(look that up in Google if you don't know where that is and you surely don't)near Berry Head(I'm not quite sure how you spell that). That's a clif.
I will try to add some photos next time...because I'm writing this from the library, and I don't know if it's possible to conect a usb thing here, well I'll try...