`` Peace, And Its Nobleness And Holiness And Honor

June Jordan, a Caribbean-American poet and activist, once explained that poetry in and of itself â€Å"is a political act, because it involves telling the truth.† During World War I, statesmen and politicians propagated the war efforts, asking the men and boys to join the cause and potentially sacrifice their lives for their country. Back in England, war was looked at in the most idealistic light. War was glory. War was honor. War was noble. War was good, and it was right for man to fight. Early in the war, some poets portrayed that rather romanticized version of war. Rupert Brooke spoke about the war’s cleansing abilities in his poem â€Å"Peace† and its nobleness and holiness and honor in â€Å"The Dead.† But many poets chose to send another message to†¦show more content†¦The General’s introductory cry of â€Å"Good-morning; good morning!† upon meeting his troops illustrates an amiable and positive view of war (1). Moving along th e warfront, one soldier, Harry, remarks to fellow soldier, Jack, that their general is â€Å"a cheery old card† (5). The camaraderie, however, is short lived, and these two boys exhibit the human cost of war and of the general’s lack of regard for them, for â€Å"he did for them both by his plan of attack† (7). A week later, â€Å"the soldiers [the general] smiled at are most of ‘em dead† (3). The succinctness and simplicity of the poem echoes the ease with which men died in war. So too, Wilfred Owen, renowned war poet and contemporary and mentee of Siegfried Sassoon, replicates his mentor’s view on the prolific lose of life in war, asking in his poem, â€Å"Anthem of Doomed Youth,† â€Å"What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?† (1). To dispel the propagated glory and honor associated with death in war, in â€Å"Exposure,† Wilfred Owen explores death by the elements, a common and less glorious way men died in battle. Owen famously stated, â€Å"My subject is War, and the pity of War. One such â€Å"pity† that he depicts in his poetry is the dismal death of soldiers by the cold and frost rather than the expected magnificent death of soldiers in man-to-man combat. In â€Å"Exposure,† Owen utilizes the voice of soldiers dying from the cold. â€Å"Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us,† the soldiers