No Case of Petty Right and Wrong - E. Thomas

Form:

- A continuous piece of text.
- Irregular rhyme scheme, followed by rhyming couplets on the last eight lines of the poem.

Language:

- Poet hints to that the men signed up just “to please newspapers”, therefore suggesting that the men were forced to be patriotic.
- Poet states that events “can rake out of the ashes”, showing that he believes that one conflict ends, another arises.

Structure:

- The use of punctuation in the middle of lines help to convey the poet’s confusion, and that he doesn’t know what is “right or wrong”.
- Every line starts with a capital letter, which reinforces his anger at the home-front.

Tone:

- Mentions nature in a way that says, although nature is beautiful, it causes a lot of damage.
- Anger and hatred for the politicians: “beside my hate for one fat patriot, my hatred of the Kaiser is love true” – suggesting that, compared to his hate for the politicians, his hatred for the Kaiser is true love – therefore showing the depth of his emotions to people of his own country; he feels like he needs to be saved from patriotism.

Reader response:

- A modern audience may feel disappointed and angry at the politicians/home-front for their involvement in misleading the men, and letting the men go to war just to be slaughtered.
- Any war veterans may feel the same level of disgust and hatred at the politicians for sending them off to war just “to please newspapers”.

Links :

-  Personification of England: ‘Happy Is England Now’ by John Freeman.
- Sense that the soldiers were forced into war: ‘Mesopotamia’ by Rudyard Kipling.