Carry On My Wayward Son
The name the British gave the First World War speaks for itself; the Great War, it sounds like a title to an epic where battle is romanticized. Many men who enlisted expected the war to be great indeed, it would be quick and they would return as heroes. The reason the British men expected a great war was partly due to the fact that Britain had not been involved in a full-scale war since 1871, and ever since the idea of war had become a mythical journey, where boys became men. This idealization of a fast and easy war combined with the mechanization of war meant the soldiers received a sudden realization of the cruelties modernized warfare entailed. Paul Fussell refers to it as an ironic war; “…the Great War was more ironic than any before or since. It was a …show more content…
A soldier is in the trenches when a rat “leaps” into his hand. The soldier finds it slightly amusing that this insignificant rat is now touching “this English hand”, and will “do the same to a German”, as in Sassoon poetry, the line between enemy and friend fades during time in the war. But as the soldier is thinking about this “queer sardonic rat”, the rat’s point of view is discussed as well; “It seems you inwardly grin as you pass / Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes”. The roles of men and rodents have been switched in this poem, Rosenberg creates irony by stating the rat can go anywhere he pleases, and the soldiers are trapped in the trenches. It seems as though the “grinning” rat is aware of this fact, which creates an even greater sense of role reversal. It’s as if man has devolved into a state where rats are better off, this thought links back to Fussell’s statement concerning the Idea of Progress; due to the amount of progress man has made, they have also become the creators of their own demise, and Rosenberg’s soldier is experiencing this
The name the British gave the First World War speaks for itself; the Great War, it sounds like a title to an epic where battle is romanticized. Many men who enlisted expected the war to be great indeed, it would be quick and they would return as heroes. The reason the British men expected a great war was partly due to the fact that Britain had not been involved in a full-scale war since 1871, and ever since the idea of war had become a mythical journey, where boys became men. This idealization of a fast and easy war combined with the mechanization of war meant the soldiers received a sudden realization of the cruelties modernized warfare entailed. Paul Fussell refers to it as an ironic war; “…the Great War was more ironic than any before or since. It was a …show more content…
A soldier is in the trenches when a rat “leaps” into his hand. The soldier finds it slightly amusing that this insignificant rat is now touching “this English hand”, and will “do the same to a German”, as in Sassoon poetry, the line between enemy and friend fades during time in the war. But as the soldier is thinking about this “queer sardonic rat”, the rat’s point of view is discussed as well; “It seems you inwardly grin as you pass / Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes”. The roles of men and rodents have been switched in this poem, Rosenberg creates irony by stating the rat can go anywhere he pleases, and the soldiers are trapped in the trenches. It seems as though the “grinning” rat is aware of this fact, which creates an even greater sense of role reversal. It’s as if man has devolved into a state where rats are better off, this thought links back to Fussell’s statement concerning the Idea of Progress; due to the amount of progress man has made, they have also become the creators of their own demise, and Rosenberg’s soldier is experiencing this