The Man He Killed, Dover Beach, And Patterns

“War is the best thing in the world,” said no sane or knowledgeable person, ever. Whatever reasons there are to go to war, such as benefiting or protecting the way of life, the outcome is inevitably devastating. War affects not only the people intimately involved who are in combat, but also civilians who live near the conflict as well as family of the soldiers who may be thousands of miles away. The people who are able to view war as a positive deed have never experienced a second of combat. The poems “The Man He Killed”, “Dulce et Decorum Est”, “Dover Beach”, and “Patterns” each tell a story of helplessness, bitterness, and suffering towards war with few exceptions. Helplessness resonates from each poem. During “The Man He Killed”, the speaker
Within “The Man He Killed”, after describing an enemy similar to himself who he could treat to a drink at any bar the speaker remarks, “Yes; quaint and curious war is!” (p. 370). The speaker killed an enemy who could have been a neighbor, if not a friend, on any other occasion. The speaker is able to describe war in this resentful statement. In “Dulce et Decorum Est” the speaker has experienced the atrocities of war first hand. The bitterness is seen at the end of the poem, as the speaker attacks people at home who have not seen what war truly is, and convince young gullible children “sweet and fitting it is to die for one’s country” (p. 492). If the people who spoke that old phrase experienced war, they would not say it so casually. Bitterness is also experienced in “Patterns” near the end. The speaker realizes the senselessness of conformity and war exclaiming, “Christ! What are patterns for?” (p.372). She had conformed her entire life and made plans for her happiness, but another pattern of her fiancé’s death had shattered those aspirations. Many men have gone to war, and the pattern of death along with the grieving widow was all too common. Lastly, rather than bitterness, desperation is seen in “Dover Beach.” The speaker describes a world that is losing faith, which also gives a sense of melancholy; however, he pleads with his significant other “Ah, love, let us
Within “The Man He Killed”, the speaker begins very confidently in his conversation; however, as the conversation progresses his speech starts to falter and his grammar is less clear. The speaker has yet to overcome the past and is still suffering from what he was forced to do to survive. In “Dulce et Decorum Est” the speaker is suffering from nightmares. “In all my dreams… His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” (p. 492). While the experience of war is in the past, the speaker is unable to escape from the vivid horrors. The speaker in “Dover Beach” also has an attitude of suffering. He is at a calm and tranquil place with his lover, yet at the end of the poem his mind won’t let him be satisfied. “And we are here as on a darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, where ignorant armies clash by night” (p. 498). Within the speaker’s lost faith, he only sees the faithless ugliness of the world, which turns out to be a battlefield. In contrast, “Patterns” attitude is melancholy rather than suffering. “And the plashing of waterdrops in the marble fountain comes down the garden-paths. The dripping never stops…” (p. 371). The dripping that never stops is symbolic of her endless sorrow upon hearing the fate of her fiancé. While one poem did not share the common emotion