The poems “Peace” by Rupert Brooke and “On Receiving News of the War” by Isaac Rosenberg take diverging approaches to discussing the developing conflict of the time that was WWI. Brooke’s outlook is influenced by his undeniably nationalistic perspective and his naivete. Through his poem “Peace,” Brooke encapsulates an unafflicted innocence that will remain forever preserved due to his untimely demise. Never having experienced the reality of war, Brooke’s innocent perspective remains detailed in his poetry forever. Rosenberg’s work, in contrast, presents a perspective that appears to be jaded already by a war that he has yet to experience. Through this poem, he mourns the preemptive loss of a generation and appears to predict a much more destructive outcome than Brooke. Despite their differences in perspective, both poets use similar imagery to communicate their messages. I argue that we ought to read these texts in conversation with one another to understand the various existing perspectives on WWI and how they relate to our own remembrance and understanding of the war.
Brooke begins to introduce his perspective in the first lines of the poem when he says “Now, God be thanked who has matched us with his hour,/And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping!” Here, he claims that the war will give an opportunity for the nation’s youth to rise to action. Through the metaphor of awakening a sleeping youth, he elucidates the idea that the war will give these men purpose. This statement also implies that the men did not previously have a purpose, and that fighting is the only thing that will grant them one. Additionally, Brooke suggests that a higher power has intentionally created this opportunity for men, which furthers his encouragement for men to participate in the war. This becomes evident when he says “With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power.” This statement continues to emphasize the idea that the war is not accidental and that it should be seen as an opportunity created by “God.” Brooke also pointedly calls attention to those who will not participate in the war. He takes a particularly critical approach to these people when he says, “Leave the sick hearts that honor could not move,/And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,” Here, he implies that the idea of honor and glory could not change their minds, and that this makes them “sick.” However, through this statement he also ignores any other factors that might prevent someone from being capable of fighting.
In Rosenberg’s “On Receiving News of the War,” he uses a plethora of literary devices to communicate his stance on the impending war. He begins by discussing what he perceives to be the presence of winter during summer. He says “Snow is a strange white word;/No ice or frost/Have asked of bud or bird/For Winter’s cost.” Arguably, Rosenberg outlines a wintery presence that is both unexpected and unwanted. Here he is implying that no natural being associated with summer has requested winter’s newfound presence, yet a metaphorical frost has been thrust upon us. In these lines, winter represents the idea of a developing war, and the image of summer represents the summer of 1914, before the war. He furthers this idea when he says “Yet ice and frost and snow/From earth to sky,/This Summer land doth know,/No man knows why.” He creates an ominous image of the looming dangers of war using wintery imagery that appears to have taken over the preexisting summer. In the following stanza, he says “Hath turned with malign kiss/Our lives to mould,” this paradoxical language communicates another dark message. He creates an ambiguous meaning with the word “mould.” On one hand, the word takes the meaning of young men who have lives yet to be moulded, or shaped and their purposes are yet to be found. This idea of purpose, which also appears in Brooke’s poem, is found in Rosenberg’s work with a very different connotation. In a sense, Rosenberg is implying that the war would create purpose, but not in the same way that Brooke does. Rosenberg’s interpretation appears to be far darker. Conversely, the word “mould” could be used to represent the idea of an infestation, or as a metaphor for the ways in which this war has yet to take over the lives of countless young men. The war has the potential to “mould” over the lives of young soldiers much like the dark, invasive, and toxic being that is mould. The idea of mould also presents a preemptive conceptualization of the new and destructive AND newly destructive technology introduced during WWI. Although Rosenberg had not yet been exposed to the new technology when this poem was written, this symbol is reminiscent of what is to come for Rosenberg and many other soldiers.
Although each poem presents a distinct perspective on the war, the poets use similar images to outline their messages. The most prominent similarity among them is that both poets use religious allusion to communicate their understanding of the war’s purpose. Brooke’s approach involves the act of thanking a higher power for creating an opportunity for himself and other men to essentially “awaken” from a slumber that is their daily life and find purpose through fighting. Rosenberg, however, writes an image of a mournful, grieving God who has lost his children. This idea becomes clear when he says “God’s blood is shed./He mourns from His lone place/His children dead.” Brooke’s “sleeping youth” is not asleep in the eyes of Rosenberg; rather, they are already dead. These ideas put in conversation one another The works of Brooke and Rosenberg present opposing perspectives on the war that memorialize an era full of uncertainty for what was to come. The differences in their outlooks further emphasize the precarious nature of the time, and the various sentiments experienced by people who lived through it. Brooke’s poem highlights a sense of nationalism and drive that is forever unscathed by the reality of terror, destruction, and grime because it is something he never experienced in the same capacity as others. He even equates going to war with near Godliness. Rosenberg, on the other hand, has already begun to mourn the loss of those who have yet to die. He is wary of what is to come and anticipates the death and crippling grief that he believes an entire generation will soon experience and be forever changed by. These poems serve as artifacts of a period of anticipation that could not imagine the true devastation felt by the effects of the war. Additionally, they serve as a reminder that there were many different opinions regarding the purpose of the war, how it should be approached and processed, and what the outcome would look like.