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Discuss faith in relation to any two poems taken from the anthology.

Faith can only exist where there is doubt, if proof is provided it ceases to be faith and becomes fact. The trenches of the First World War were a place of constant doubt and instability, Mark Girouard described it as a “world of mud, blood, boredom, fear, endurance, carnage and mutilation”, a world where faith in one’s convictions was essential. One might have faith in God, in the love of their family and friends, or in the ideals of their country and the convictions on which the horrific warfare was based. This discourse will treat on two types of faith, the religious and the patriotic.

Patriotic faith can be defined as belief in the supremacy and superiority of one’s native country. Crawford demonstrates that “Several poets, like Brooke, were quick to regard English opposition to Germany and English defense of Belgium as proofs that the English cause was just.” This statement is not backed by any political statistics or substantial proof; it is simply something believed to be true and therefore is an act of faith on these poets’ parts.

According to Private George Morgan, 16th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment, “We had been brought up to believe that Britain was the best country in the world and we wanted to defend her”. This was a sentiment widely adopted, especially considering that the schools taught, “that we were better than other people”. Brooke’s The Soldier is an explicit example of patriotic literature with its constant inference of England’s superiority. “In that rich earth a richer dust concealed”, because he is made of English dust it is richer than anything else the world holds, and a heart can find peace “under an English heaven” as if the Englishman is sent to a different afterlife than men of other nationalities.

Humans are physically all made the same, but Brooke is not the only one to suggest that because he is English he is somehow made differently, it is his patriotism talking, and a blind faith that knows nothing of reason. Brooke’s use of the sonnet form tells us that he is aspiring to the romance and respectability of the Renaissance poets that first coined that structure.

It can be argued that he attempts to lend some beauty to an otherwise ugly subject matter; one would expect war to be devoid of anything worthy of such romantic depiction. Brooke might be trying to romanticize the war to make it easier to deal with. This can be related to the idea of faith in that the soldier may hide behind his ideals of the war in order to escape the reality of it.

 By remembering that they fight for king and country the common soldier can justify his own death, the death of his comrades, and the death of his enemies at his own hand. As Johnston points out, Brooke appears to be writing “his own elegy” in The Soldier, “think only this of me” (The Soldier 1). He then personifies his country by referring to England rather than English, he also tells us of “her flowers…her ways” (Ibid 6), one is given the sense of the extreme privilege bestowed on one whom is allowed to experience these things and places that so clearly belong to some superior entity.

One may argue that Brooke worships his England as one may worship God. It is important to make the distinction that Brooke’s verse treats on his England and that this may not correspond with another’s perception of the country. Johnston notes, “Brooke implies that his world, as he knows it, is worth dying for; but he does not say, nor should he be given credit for saying, that the values of his world are those of the nation.”

One must be aware of Brooke’s privileged background, renowned as “A young Apollo” he was friends with Churchill and the Prime Minister’s family, here was no representative of the people. Johnston points out that “the picture of England that Brooke knew and loved so well was not the England of factories, slums, cities, farms, seaports, and mining towns, but the academic-pastoral world” he was accustomed to. Despite the fact that the faith portrayed in The Soldier is of the patriotic variety, the other religious faith appears inescapable.

He mentions “the Eternal mind” (The Soldier 10) and “an English heaven” (Ibid 14); one may speculate that religion becomes attractive in the face of so much senseless violence. Perhaps the soldier needed to believe that his sacrifice was part of some grand plan, that his death would have some unknowable necessity in the scheme of things, devised by an omnipotent being. This appears to be the case in Sassoon’s poem written two years later, perhaps the passage of time is an important factor in the shift from patriotic to religious faith.

In his Christ and the Soldier Sassoon deals with the struggle of the common soldier to keep his faith and raises questions asked by many at the Front in 1916. Perhaps the most poignant lines come in the third section, “Christ said, “Believe; and I can cleanse your ill” (Christ and the Soldier, III.4), here he clings to what dogmatic law conveys, as the soldier clings to this fact to justify the carnage that surrounds him. He then goes on to note common questions asked when faith is shaken, the second stanza of section three asks the difference between English and German soldiers, “But be you for both sides?” (Ibid., III.10).

The Church in England was fond of saying that all Germans would go to hell, but it also taught forgiveness so wartime religion was a confusing paradox for the soldier. The poem also highlights that soldiers were “paid to kill” (Ibid., III.10), which goes against what the Bible teaches. But there is a resignation in the lines, “Maybe there’s comfort when a soul/believes in mercy, and we need it in these hells” (Ibid., III.8-9), as if one must believe in God in order to live in the trenches, that faith is a necessity when so much evil confronts man. The poem opens with a sense of obligation, “The straggled soldier” (Ibid., I.1) – note the lack of designation; the facelessness of the protagonist demonstrates the loss of identity of the soldier – stops in front of a crucifix, the punctuation here gives a sense of stupefaction as a man, wearied by war beholds a religious icon that seems out of place. The description of his genuflection, “clumsily dumped down upon his knees” (Ibid., I.2), seems to say that his action is obligatory rather than heart felt, an action of learned behavior that becomes automatic.

In the first two lines Sassoon has created an atmosphere of desolation, the weary soldier whom, upon seeing a cross, probably a reminder of home life before the carnage, kneels out of habit to seek guidance from his god. One is aware that even in a world as far removed as this is from the man’s religious life, he still reverts back to his faith when reminded of it. Sassoon goes on to remind his soldier, and so the reader, of the sacrifice Christ made on the cross, which seems to serve as an image that belittles the suffering of the soldier, perhaps saying that if Christ could endure his pains then the soldier could endure the current conflict, that pales by comparison.

Somewhat black humor is created as the soldier compares Christ’s stigmatic wounds to “Blighty” (Ibid., I.9) injuries and illustrates how, for the soldier, everything became related to escape from the war. It is amusing that the soldier seems to be saying that he would endure the stigmata to save himself when Christ endured them to save the world. This highlights the horror of the war and shows how a man’s faith may be considered in light of his suffering at the Front.

One may also note that this obsession with one’s own escape from the conflict contrasts with earlier enthusiasm to give one’s life for king and country, the nineteen fourteen soldier welcomed self-sacrifice, two years on self-preservation emerges, the nineteen sixteen soldier’s patriotic faith has been sorely shaken and is no longer enough. The line “Beyond all battles moves the Paraclete” (Ibid., I.12) has a particular resonance because it says that even when one cannot see how god can exist in light of such suffering he is still at work.

One is reminded of the old cliché, “God works in mysterious ways”, and perhaps Sassoon was alluding to this when he has Jesus say, “I made for you the mysteries” (Ibid., I.11). One might consider the rhyme scheme as significant, the verses are sestets with triplicate rhymes, and significance may be noted in their correspondence with the Holy Trinity. Then perhaps the fact that this pattern is doubled might show how the scenes of war relate to religion and faith.

Faith was an attempt to give reason to the senseless violence of the Great War. It would appear that at first it was enough to know that England was better than Germany and that its supremacy was in need of defense. But as the slaughter highlighted the similitude of friend and foe, religion was needed as a justification and even if the holes began to show here too, faith had to be clung to or it was impossible to continue the campaign. 


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Melissa

 

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Name: Melissa
Uploaded Date: Sep 19,2014

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I am a Shakespeare fanatic with six years` classroom experience. I enjoy reading a wide range of fiction and non-fiction and became a teacher to share my passion for language. Now that I have a young family, I have decided to indulge my love of teaching outside the classroom to fit arou.... Read More

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