War and Modernism Poems During the Earky 1900s Essay

During the tumultuous early 1900s, many poems were written on the horrors both heard of and encountered first hand. Some poets, like William Butler Yeats, wrote about the horrors of rebellion they encountered; others, like Wilfred Owen, were part of the dreadful World War I and were urged by their memories to start writing (â€Å"Wilfred Owen†). Both were part of the modernist movement, of which Yeats is often regarded as one of the founders. Modernism was a movement that outstretched literature and poetry, yet provided a new amount of freedom for war poets, as it allowed them to express themselves in the modernist fashion of free forms and room for criticism on the modern world (Matterson). William Butler Yeats’ â€Å"The Second Coming†, is an†¦show more content†¦While the poem does rhyme, it was freely written in the way the poet felt was most fitting. Secondly, this poem is fitting for the Modernist movement because it expresses what millions of peop le might have felt after the soldiers started shooting each other and all hell broke loose: it was the end of the world as they knew it. The part about the â€Å"millions of people† is important for this point, because Modernists like Yeats desired to move away from the personal towards the intellectual or collective. The poem criticizes the war by using cryptic images that are clear enough to convey their true meaning: Yeats was shocked at what had happened to his world. While Ireland was no part of the World War, the violent Easter Rising took place in 1916, when Ireland tried to break free from the British domination (â€Å"The 1916 Easter Rising†). Yeats, a Dubliner, was there to experience it himself. Wilfred Owen’s â€Å"Dulce et Decorum est†, on the other hand, did not paint a very poetic picture of the war; instead, it illustrates in a gruesome and to-the-point manner how horrible it was, while still fitting in with the Modernist movement. This po em tells in harsh words the story of young soldiers like Owen himself, who were stuck in the trenches when they were attacked with poison gas. One of them was not as lucky as the others and could not save himself in time. Nothing is left to the imagination in this poem. The image of the dying young man, choking at