Comparative Analysis of War Poetry Across Different Cultures

Abstract

The paper engages in a comparative study on war poetry in different cultural backgrounds with flavors of thematic, stylistic and socio-political dimensions of war as represented in poetry.  Western war poetry, particularly that of the war of World War I, is characterized by a preoccupation with disillusionment (with war as an event and with politico-military leaders), the naturalism of war and a condemnation of how war is sanitized. Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon use graphic realism and graphic imagery to accomplish this.  Eastern war poetry, in contrast, tends to concentrate on the issues of national identification, struggle, and national retentions of the culture. Conflict is used by poets such as Mahmoud Darwish and Bao Ninh to discuss country memory, exile and desire to come back to its homeland.  The peculiarities of using various literary devices and literary styles used by poets of different cultures are also revealed in the study. As an example, the Western poets apply the free poetry and vivid images, and the Eastern ones apply classical poetry and intricate metaphors.  Ultimately, war poetry of numerous cultures is not merely a means of remaining faithful to memory of personal and collective trauma; it is alternatively a means of social commentary and resistance as well as way of preservation of cultural identity.  This comparison has revealed that war impacts each and every person and that poets write about it in various ways.