Page 67 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry Jayatee Bhattacharya, Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 7: Major Literary Terms-VII

CONTENTS

Objectives
Introduction

7.1 War Poets

7.2 The Poems
7.2.1 Movement Poets

7.3 Modernist Poetry

7.4 Summary
7.5 Keywords

7.6 Review Questions
7.7 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Discuss briefly about the poems, war poets and movement poets
• Explain the term modernist poetry.

Introduction

The main idea or underlying meaning of a literary work. A theme may be stated or implied. Theme
differs from the subject or topic of a literary work in that it involves a statement or opinion about the
topic. Not every literary work has a theme. Themes may be major or minor. A major theme is an idea
the author returns to time and again. It becomes one of the most important ideas in the story. Minor
themes are ideas that may appear from time to time. It is importnat to recognize the difference between
the theme of a literary work and the subject of a literary work. The subject is the topic on which an
author has chosen to write. The theme, however, makes some statement about or expresses some
opinion on that topic. For example, the subject of a story might be war while the theme might be the
idea that war is useless.

7.1 War Poets

A War poet is a poet writing in time of and on the subject of war. The term, which is applied
especially to those in military service during World War I, was documented as early as 1848 in
reference to German revolutionary poet, George Herwegh.
It was in English poetry, such as that of Wilfred Owen, that the war poem became an established
genre marker and attracted growing popular interest. At the time the term soldier poet was used,
but then dropped out of favour. The evolution of the concept was linked to a distinction drawn
between poets who were anti-war in attitude and those who wrote more traditional war poetry.
What makes a war poet is not well-defined. The public may have seen war poems as reportage
creating direct emotional links to the soldier.

60 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY