The Heroism of Dying for Ones Country in Poetry Essay -- William Shak

The Heroism of Dying for Ones Country in PoetryThe Volunteer is a Pro-War poem written by Herbert Asquith. Asquithuses roman imagery to invoke a feeling of greatness and honour.Asquith begins his poem by describing the miserable, mundane life of aclerk, working in a metropolis grey. He opens with the words Here liesthat are commonly used to begin writing on a gravestone. Thisepitaph - style fount gives the idea that the clerk has now passedaway and the poem pass on stand on events beforehand. We are toldthe clerk has spent half his life doing boring work (..Toiling atledgers..), his days drifting away. There is a distinct lack of finis in his life, ..With no lance broken in lifes tournament(Lance is roman imagery)And to that degree he dreams of ..The illumination eagles of the legions.. andhorsemen ..thundering past beneath the oriflamme.. (or battle flag.)Asquith cleverly uses the nerve ..The gleaming eagles of thelegions.. to conjure up ideas in the referees mind of great g leamingroman soldiers. This adds to the ideology that fight is a glamorous andnoble thing.In his second stanza, Asquith tells us that ..those waiting dreamsare satisfied.. Obviously, the clerk has joined the army. He talks of..waiting dreams.. giving the impression that the clerk has dreamtof this for a very coherent time. He goes on to say ..From twilight tothe halls of dawn he went.. I think what he means is that the clerkhas gone from his dull city to a new, brighter beginning. And althoughhe died he is happy. ..His lance is broken but he lies content..Because in that high hour in which he lived and died he achievedsomething he had dreamt of forever. Asquith withal mentions that the ... ...er uses images of death and an epitaph style openingto convey the message of a gallant death. I dont think that makingthe proofreader think of death will inspire him or her to fight for theircountry at all. Dulce est Decorum Est is the to the highest degree effective poem ofthe three. It s usage of vivid and horrific imagery could ease up anypatriotic citizen think again before going to war. The expression ofthe poem is highly well thought out because it begins to getextremely shocking in the final stanza, almost certainly making thereader sway away from the honourable image he or she had of war beforereading. It then finishes with labelling Dulce et decorum est Propatria mori a lie. This is intelligent because the reader is at hismost easily influenced after reading the horrific description in thefinal stanza and therefore is more likely to agree with this point.