Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the little emptiness of love!
Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release there,
Where there's no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending,
Naught broken save this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.
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anti-war, pro-war?
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i know that rupert brooke is a pro-war poet but my teacher has given me information and apparently "peace" is an ani-war poem. is this true? -
Why should it be surprising that poems like this weren't written during the 2nd World War? When the First World War came a lot of Europeans were not happy with the situation they were in. They wanted an own country or more land. This War was for them the perfect opportunity to show their bravery and earn more land. Once they found out what cruelties the war brought they changed their minds and became anti-war. When the 2nd World War came they learned from their mistakes and didn't go into war like it was a good thing that would bring them more good than bad. I would be more surprised if there were a lot of passionate poems written by English men in the beginning of the 2nd World War.
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This poem was written at the beginning of the First World War – 1914. Brooke apparently rejoices at the chance to prove his worth during the war. Believing the hype delivered at the time, it will be clean, honourable and will bring peace of mind, and there will be pain and death but all that will pass. It's popularity at the time of its publication helped to build the enthusiasm, because at that time people were in the main ignorant of war's reality.
Difficult for us in modern times to understand the sentiments portrayed back then, but it does show the mind-set of the young men of 1914 – seemingly a chance to escape from their boring lives, perhaps return a Hero or to prove themselves as men not boys.
It's an interesting fact that poems of this exuberance and passion were not written prior to the 2nd World War (1939).
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