Conflict Poems - top 3 quotes with analysis - Final Part

Falling Leaves ‘When no wind whirled them whistling to the sky’ The alliteration here reinforces the leaves and their actions. This is important because in the second half of the poem the leaves are compared in an extended metaphor to the soldiers in Belgium. This alliteration also links to the falling rhyme pattern (ABC, ABC) which helps the reader picture the falling leaves. ‘Like snowflakes falling on the Flemish clay.’ Cole compares the dying soldiers to snowflakes in a simile. Snowflakes seem an appropriate comparison as snowflakes are allegedly unique, just like the soldiers. Snow if also fragile and the winter that is evoked here is part of the seasonal theme of the poem. Ironically there will be no ‘spring’ for these soldiers – although the land and society will renew itself now war is over. ‘A gallant multitude / which now all withering lay / slain by no wind of age or pestilence’ The emotive language of ‘gallant’ suggests someone who is brave and valiant, a positive adjective to describe the soldiers even though they are a ‘multitude’ which gives the impression of the vast numbers of dead. The ‘slain by no wind’ makes the deaths seem unnatural, they are needless. Next to of course god america i ‘He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water.’ This last line is separated from the main body of the poem suggesting that it is particularly significant. As the poem mimics the sonnet form (purporting to be about a patriotic love of country) this also confirms the line as being significant, but being a break away from the sonnet form. The ‘he spoke’ suggests that the narrator has finished speaking and that the author is taking over. The ‘rapidly’ could suggest that the narrator doesn’t actually feel confident with the message, and so undermines the patriotic message. ‘rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter / they did not stop to think they died instead.’ The simile here compares the soldiers to lions, the ‘roaring’ is appropriate as this is what lions do. It also makes the ‘slaughter’ seem more dramatic. This is lifted from an heroic poem, but the second line undermines this. ‘They did not stop to think,’ suggests that those involved in conflict have the capacity for thought and should not just follow orders blindly – or even choose to go to war in the first place. ‘thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gory / by jingo by gee by gosh by gum’ While this line starts by suggesting that America is ‘glorious,’ the emotive language is again undermined by Cummings who chooses the repetition of ‘by gory / by jingo etc’ by mixing the heroic with the lyrics of a popular song we get a strange combination which is not serious at all. The lack of capitals throughout suggest how even america is not significant. Hawk Roosting ‘No falsifying dream / Between my hooked head and hooked feet’ The idea of a ‘falsifying dream’ seems like an oxymoron because a dream is already false. At the start of the poem we are not sure if Hughes is really talking about a hawk, literally, or using it as a symbol to discuss a dictator. The repetition of ‘hooked’ suggests something that is not particularly honest of straight. ‘The allotment of death’ The metaphor shows how the hawk sees the garden as his domain, one which is full of death, but is also under his control. This has clear comparisons with the idea of the hawk as a dictator. ‘Through the bones of the living / no arguments assert my right.’ The idea of ‘through’ the living, suggests the power the hawk has to tear its victims apart. Connected to the second line, it seems the hawk rules with an iron fist: no one goes against his ‘right.’ Again this can be seen as connected to the dual discussion of the poem hawk vs. dictator. Going through the bones seems to be a threat while the personal pro-noun of ‘my’ gives it an immediate effect on the reader.