In reading the section on World War I, I learned how advancements in technology changed society. When the War first started, the intro tells us that British leaders joined for idealistic causes, not for money or land, but that this idealism and patrioticism soon changed. Writers both glorified and condemned the war, but also people's attitudes about the war. Because the war lasted so long, it changed their idealism to suspicion. It was marked as a "rupture with the past," which changed everyone's perceptions of their world.

Rupert Brooke was a writer who became known for his patriotic verse. He glorifies the cause of war in "The Soldier," in that the soldier is fighting for a nationalistic cause, for ideals of freedom and peace. Even should the soldier die, one is not to mourn the death, but celebrate the idea and love of England that is carried to a "foreign field." That a piece of England lies in another country should inspire gratitude in the bringing of love of England to that country. Implied is that the soldier is not an individual, but an extension of a romanticized perception of home country. The poem takes a high tone, and was popular probably because it moved people to think in a nationalistic way. To me it sounds like propaganda--get people caught up in an emotion, and in this case, remove the individual from his ghastly circumstance (death in a war), prettify that death, and gloss over the importance of that life for the sake of maintaining support at home.

It is in Sassoon's poems that a more realistic picture of war is written, and in such see the pessimism and suspicion of a world "ruptured" from its past. Sassoon, in "The Glory of Women," details the horrors of war. "You love us when we're heroes, home on leave, or wounded in a mentionable place." Here Sassoon confronts the hypocrisy of those at home who hold in their head an ideal of a soldier, which is more than merely human. People thought that British soldiers were reservoirs of strength and admirable action, but Sassoon says that even they "retire," a euphemism for run scared, when overcome by horror--for which the ideal of a British soldier holds no room. He is talking about how people are caught up in the symbols and idea of adventure of war, but know nothing about the true horror of it, nor want to. He gives us the image of the German mother who doesn't yet know that her son is killed while knitting socks for him, which places the hypocrisy of the general public in their own faces. While they must not sympathize with a German, the image of a mother who will soon realize her son is dead must resonate with anyone as fellow humans.

Because Sassoon's poetry was so anti-war and realistic, it was not well-received by the British public. But the War was going on and on, and the text tells us that in the four years Britain was involved over a million troops died. It was the war, in addition to changes in all aspects of society, that helped to usher in the modernist movement. So we see a world which is drafted in death and struggle, and these themes influenced modern writers.