Channel Firing

"Drummer Hodge" by Thomas Hardy (1899)

Possibly Hardy’s most famous poem about warfare, “Drummer Hodge” tells the story of the burial of a soldier named Hodge, a drummer in the British army during the Second Boer War in 1899. In contrast with “Channel Firing,” “Drummer Hodge” is much more solemn, with no trace of humor or satire, as it is primarily concerned with a soldier who died very far from his home. The bleaker tone and more complex diction of this earlier work reflect Hardy’s previous associations with the literary movement known as Realism that was still in vogue at the end of the 19th century when he wrote the poem.

"Anthem for Doomed Youth" by Wilfred Owen (1917)

Written in the fall of 1917 while recovering from shellshock, Wilfred Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth” is one of the most pivotal poems of World War I. The poem is a lament to the young soldiers who perished during the war, describing some of the bloodiest battles and the funerals that followed. A take on the Petrarchan sonnet, the poem flips the classic form traditionally reserved for love on its head by describing instead the violence of war and the deadly quiet that follows in its wake.