The first world war and its influence on british poetry

THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND ITS
INFLUENCE ON BRITISH POETRY

LÍNGUA INGLESA IV - COMUNICAÇÃO ESCRITA
TÓPICOS DA POESIA MORNING When we think about the First World War, (1914 - 1918), the images that come to our minds are the images of death, fear and pessimism. People do not remember that during these years art and literature were not forgotten, they continued to be produced. In those four years, however, the artists were influenced by the war atmosphere and, because of that, their paintings, books, essays, poems are normally dark, gloomy. We can say that all these works reflected what was going on into the world, and because of this, it is very important to study the literary and artistic productions of the war period. In terms of literature we can see that poets and writers criticised the war through their poems, tales and essays. Richard Harding Davis, (1914), for example, in his article The Germans in Brussels criticises the monstrous engine that the First World War was. He says that it is the most efficient organisation of the world, but, unfortunately, its purpose is only death. It removes all soldiers’ individuality, and makes each man a cog in a machine. Laurence Binyon also criticises the war in his works. In this fragment of poem he says that the war “stole” the lives of young people:

“ They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.” Laurence Binyon So, through these examples we can see that the First World War was not only important in historical terms, but also in literary terms. My main objective in this paper is to show people the literary production, (in poetry), in England during the First World War. I will study not only the Historical background of England before the World War and the changes that it provoked in