Patriotism and WWI: And its manifestation within poetry

Sacrifice of individuals for national identity has been embodied into the patriotic views of modern day society. However, the occurrence of World War I’s fight for imperialism contradicted all religious and morals of battle which saw millions die in scenes of horror. Ultimately the realities of warfare were exposed by many names in literature. Patriotism is defined as the individual's devotion and emotional attachment to their country which infact is inevitable and predominantly depicted at its pinnacle during the Great War. The zeitgeist of the 1900’s British society ultimately has been influenced by patriotic ideals that characterised pre-war England, which held true to high military moral and jingoistic beliefs about the British patriarchal society. Correspondingly, the idealistic view on warfare has been prominent throughout history, dating back to Homer's “Iliad”, where poets, writers and artists have been expressing war as “beautiful” and honourable. Ultimately, the cliched view of warfare served as the catalyst for nations to enlist and gain support for disillusioned young men to fight for the pride of their country. Nevertheless the vicious reality of warfare had only taken true effect on the soldiers when their individual devotion to the homeland had subsided due to an epiphany that war is the divergence of heroism. Moreover, Literature has been the underlying medium for all individuals to express self-intellect and understanding of their own philosophies for a prolonged amount of time. Poets strived during World War I and were seen to manifest the zeitgeist and contradictly shape the reality of warfare by simply writing out their thoughts as prose. Consequently, poets have explored and subverted the notion of patriotism through their war poetry which inescapably captured the conflicting views Individuals had on jingoism, creating an intuitive view of the Grea...