Thursday, January 08, 2009

"'Well, blood is dirt,' I said."


Owen may not have given his war poetry universality. Sure, there's poems about the "Greater Love" between soldiers, as well as negative aspects of war in almost every other poem. However, I think the circumstances under which WWI, the war Owen fought in, were different. It was a completely unnecessary war. Owen expresses this by tearing down the romantic notions of war previous poets had held, and glorifying instead the sacrifices of each soldier.
But I believe there ARE other things to be admired about war. Like nobility. I refuse to believe that fear is the only main emotion on the battlefield. After all, not every war in history has been unnecessary. We're definitely better off without war, but if the situation calls for it, it isn't fair to say war is entirely futile.
This picture doesn't justify the need for war in any way. It just made me think that fighting to save other people (or other things, i couldn't resist this picture) is not all glory, as the Romantics would say, but not all futility either.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

KITTENY MITTEN. that's all i can say.
-mia

Anonymous said...

hahaha cute innit!!

just sitting there, not like the stupid block 7 cats. such scaredy... CATS.

Anonymous said...

yeaaahhh and even though the soldier is holding a huge rifle. prob the poor kitty is used to seeing such scary things.
-mia

Raghav said...

"It feels like 14 carats but no clarity.
When I look at the man who would be king,
The man who would be king, goes to the desert to sing the war his dad rehearsed.
Came back with flags on coffins and said, 'we won, we won' "

The formatting screwed up. haha. FALL OUT BOY LYRICS.

Anonymous said...

the old owen days!

Shreya said...

Raghav:
haha i just switched on the com to listen! thanks for these lines, woot they sound good already! =D

michee:
lichee! haha yeaaaaa. with ms chia in the treehouse! i still think Gatsby beats all though. WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR BLOG? haha the last time i checked, you'd chamnged template, and then it disappeared! haha.