Firstly, the background information needed to understand the problem is the context of the war stated in the poem, which is when and what happened during then. This report includes the impact of war on poetry and other information need to explore this particular problem. To gather the information needed to explore this particular problem, firstly, I would find out the context of the war mentioned in the poem, if not, I would find out more on the poet. Following on, I would use the information and put myself into the context or the author’s shoes.
From there, I can analyse the poem better and thus find out the impact of war on poetry. Main text In the poem “Hiroshima” written by Angela M. Clifton, not only depicts the scene during the atomic bombing on Hiroshima, but also the after effects and impacts felt by others after the bombing. During World War II, the Japanese invaded the other countries and caused many deaths and misery. Then, the atomic bomb landed on Hiroshima to put World War II to a stop and to signify that the Japanese needed to stop the war.
The atomic caused many deaths in Hiroshima. The atomic bomb was of “inhumanity of man to man”, and I feel that all these misery and sufferings could be prevented, as it was the foolishness of man that brought sufferings to his own self. And then later mentioned in the poem, the future generations learned from the lesson of their ancestors’ futility. The impact of World War II (which is a cause of the Hiroshima bombing) is deeply felt in the Japanese as not only did they learn a lesson from their ancestors, they “inherited a sorrow” and will remember it.
The lesson learnt is being expressed in the poem “Hiroshima”, and the poem still serves as a reminder to the Japanese what the ancestors had gone through because of World War II. Thus, World War II made an impact on the poem “Hiroshima”, and poetry can now serve as a reminder, rather than just depicting sceneries and objects. Another poem I would like to compare is “Shall we remember what war is? ” (Appendix A) by David Roberts. This poem is read during Remembrance Days, when people commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and of civilians in times of war.
The poem serves as a reminder, what war is, and how foolish were man in the past, to start a war. The poem criticizes war, being “the ultimate in criminality, the ultimate obscenity, and the ultimate crime against humanity”. The impact of war is greatly felt by many people in the world during the past, and the consequences of each war are known by people in the present. Poetry is a powerful tool to convey messages and thus, many poets try to think back the effects of the war.
Then, write the effects into a poem, for everybody in the present to learn from the past. Thus, the impact of war on poetry is that, poetry has become a teaching device, for the people in the present to learn something. Rather than in the olden times, poetry was only meant to describe objects and sceneries. Conclusions and recommendations In conclusion, poetry has changed by the impact of war, in the way that it has become a teaching tool and device, compared to the past, when poetry was for the purpose of language arts, describing people, objects and sceneries.
Poetry has changed as in the past, it was only for language arts purposes. But after war made an impact on poetry, it has become a learning tool and a teaching device, not only on the language art aspect, but also on the lesson learnt from the poem. I think that it might be possible to find out more events and things that changed how poetry works, as poetry is a powerful tool that is able to convey messages.
References
Poetry Resource Package (students)
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/RemembranceB.htm#Using_the_poems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima
