Views of a Nepali Economist

Many wars have been fought in the history of mankind but none of them have resulted in as much suffering and loss of human life as the First World War. People who participated in that war were not prepared to face the brutality that the development of technology in warfare was about to cause. Millions of people died in that war and hundreds of people wrote about the war. Two of such people who wrote about the war are Wilfred Owen and Thomas McGrath.

First, it is Thomas McGrath's "Gone Away Blues"

Sirs, when you are in your last extremity,
When your admirals are drowning in the grass-green sea,
When your generals are preparing the total catastrophe—
I just want you to know how you can not count on me.

I have ridden to hounds through my ancestral halls,
I have picked the eternal crocus on the ultimate hill,
I have fallen through the window of the highest room,
But don’t ask me to help you ’cause I never will.

Sirs, when you move that map-pin how many souls must dance?
I don’t think all those soldiers have died by happenstance.
The inscrutable look on your scrutable face I can read at a glance—
And I’m cutting out of here at the first chance.

I have been wounded climbing the second stair,
I have crossed the ocean in the hull of a live wire,
I have eaten the asphodel of the dark side of the moon,
But you can call me all day and I just won’t hear.

O patriotic mister with your big ear to the ground,
Sweet old curly scientist wiring the birds for sound,
O lady with the Steuben glass heart and your heels so rich and round—
I’ll sent you a picture postcard from somewhere I can’t be found.

I have discovered the grammar of the Public Good,
I have invented a language that can be understood,
I have found the map of where the body is hid,
And I won’t be caught dead in your neighborhood.

O hygienic inventor of the bomb that’s so clean,
O lily white Senator from East Turnip Green,
O celestial mechanic of the money machine—
I’m going someplace where nobody makes your scene.

Good-by, good-by, good-by,
Adios, au ’voir, so long,
Sayonara, dosvedanya, ciao,
By-by, by-by, by-by.

Second, it is Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et decorum est"

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Bitten as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" shows us the reality of the war as a first-hand experience in a serious way with the use of metaphors, irony and imagery. On the other hand, McGrath's "Gone Away Blues" presents the reasons for not joining the war with the extensive use of metaphors in a humorous way, but underneath that humor lies his resentment.

Owen uses metaphors to great effect. In the very first line, Owen describes a tired and helpless soldier; he says, " bent double, like old beggars under sacks." With this, Owen hurls the pain of a war directly into our faces.

Both the poets use imagery in their poems but here again Owen excels and McGrath fails. McGrath uses images like, "...scientist wiring the birds for sound," and "O patriotic mister with your big ear ..." But he fails to make a significant impact with these images.

On the other hand, Owen uses images of soldiers like, "men marched asleep" "...blood shod" "...lame;...blind" "...fumbling" "...stumbling" "...floundering..." "...guttering, choking, drowning." All these use of images give the readers a sense of what the poet went through. And, what went through his mind at the scene of the war. He writes "Gas! GAS!" The first word is a plain reaction of a tired soldier who has seen enemies come and spray gases at them regularly. The second word is a cry for life when the soldier comes to his senses and realizes that this might be the last breath he would ever take before the poisonous gas kills him.

McGrath creates a war poem with the use of images. Owen creates a feast of visual war drama for the readers with his use of images. This clearly is a big difference between the two.

McGrath's poem is a satire, and he uses humor to address his points, his beliefs, and his thoughts. However, he uses italics as if he is letting the reader know that he is serious about every single word, every single line and every single paragraph that he has written. Clearly, underneath all this humor lies a deep sense of resentment. On the other hand, Owen is clearly not interested in humor, and presents his thoughts straightforward with bitter feelings.

Both the poets use irony. Owen uses it better and at the end. His use of irony is extremely effective because it sums up the poem's theme: war is brutal. And, whatever we have been told about wars and glory isn't true. Owen writes, "The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est/ Pro patria mori" which means "it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country." This irony sums up his frustration, his helplessness and his resentment to whatever is happening.

Both the poems have resentment and frustration towards wars and the perpetrators of wars. But Owen's resentment can be understood and felt more effectively because he shows a first-hand description of war. The reality in Owen's poem surpasses McGrath's poem, and therefore Owen's poem is much more effective and disturbing. Both poets ultimately convey the same message though: war is not beautiful.

Note: Wilfred Owen wrote "Dulce et decorum est" while he was serving in the First World War.  He died on November 4, 1918--seven days before the war ended (November 11, 1918).

Labels: first world war, poem, thomas mcgrath, wilfred owen