POEMS OF WAR

By Abby Broxon, Danielle Clark, Adrianna Collins, & Emma Smith

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Table of Contents
Birds by Abby Broxon from the perspective of a child 3

Nurses by Abby Broxon from the perspective of a nurse 4

Different Kind of Soldier by Danielle Clark from the perspective of

a soldiers wife 5

Tired by Danielle Clark from the perspective of a soldier 6

A Generals War by Adrianna Collins from the perspective of a general 7

To Those Who Have Helped Us by Adrianna Collins from the perspective

of a Jewish survivor 8

These Last Moments by Emma Smith from the perspective of dying soldiers 9

Bombs Away by Emma Smith from the perspective of a pilot/bomber 10

Analysis

After the War by Lin Rowell, Analysis by Abby Broxon 11

Return to Sender: Died by Wounds by Marion Strobel, Analysis by Danielle

Clark 13

City Ravaged by Flames by Sadako Kurihara, Analysis by Adrianna Collins 15

The Watcher by Ridgley Torrence, Analysis by Emma Smith 16

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Birds
A sonnet from the perspective of a child
By Abby Broxon

I look out the window to see the sky

I watch birds fly away in a hurry
Mom comes to the window to watch them fly
She looks at me with a smile of worry
I laugh so she knows itll all be fine
She laughs along so that I would feel safe
Now its night time and I watch the moon shine
Mom gathers the family with a wave
We go to the bomb shelter for the night
All through the night we listen to the bombs
Mom wants to keep me safe and holds me tight
We feel the earth shake and I cling to mom
The bombing stops and theres a long silence
Then Its broken by the all clear sirens
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Nurses
An acrostic poem from the perspective of a nurse
By Abby Broxon

No time to slack off

Under pressure

Rigorous training

Students with free education

Evacuating patients

Skilled and determined

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Different Kind of Soldier

An I Am poem from the perspective of a soldiers wife

By Danielle Clark

I am a wife of a solider

I fear that my husband will not return home

I am strong for myself, my family, and everyone around me

I am a factory worker

I feel the fear as objects clash and cling

I hear the whispers speaking of the dangers

I am a sister
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I hold my mother as she cries for her son

I cry for my family is broken inside and out

I am a mother

I answer my childrens whys

I pray they will never see these days again

I am a woman

I have the strength of an army inside my soul

I am a soldier in disguise.
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Tired
A black out poem from the perspective of a soldier
By Danielle Clark
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A Generals War
A free verse from the perspective of a general
By Adrianna Collins

The battlefield is a terrifying place

The men are waiting for orders
From their beholders
And I must see them fall flat on their face.

We enter the towns and see that people are dying

Children are crying
Overhead guns are firing
When we get there, bodies are lying.

I must be strong
My men are looking to me
To say that this is not wrong
But sometimes I cant see how it couldnt be.

We are shooting other men

But wives are being widowed then
We cant have a single friend
Because well lose them in the end

I must remind myself that my country is why Im here

Others have died and they need the vengeance
We must fight especially when victory is near
But in the end all there is, is silence.

I stand tall for my men

So they wont have fear in the end.
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To Those Who Have Helped Us

An ode from the perspective of a Jewish survivor
By Adrianna Collins

We lived so happily
Then we were hunted
We ran so far
Afraid of everyone

Our children were scared

We were all dying
But hiding and running was better
Than dying from the experiments

We thank you for your help

You hid us in your attics
Or the open rooms you had
You were nice to us

Youd go out of your way to get us food

Putting your life on the line just for us
We try to help but there isnt much we can do
All we can do is say thank you

Youve helped us live

And we wish many were like you
You were nice to help us
And thats why we say thank you
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These Last Moments

Haikus from the perspectives of dying soldiers on the battlefield
By Emma Smith

This is how it ends

Shrapnel and fire rain above
Everything goes dark

A cacophony
Friends dead to the left and right
Eyes barely open

A heart racing fast

Red, full on red, only red
No living through this

A world running red

Clashing before it all ends
Comrades run ahead
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Bombs Away
A concrete poem from the perspective of a pilot/bomber
By Emma Smith
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After the War

By Lin Rowell

Analysis by Abby Broxon

When the tale is told in text books

Of the battle in the west,

Where the desert meets a desert

And the pasture ain't the best.

When the story's set and stated,

Written down in black and white

For the up and coming soldier

To peruse from left to right.

When the printed pulp is published,

Page on page of lettered lines,

And its dispositioned forces

And its places, points and times.

When the book is there before us,

Full of tactical defeats,

And technical advantages

And strategical retreats.

When the past is put on paper,

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Telling why and when and where,

It'll curb the curiosity

Of the thousands that were there.

For the folks that fought this warfare,

On the home front or at the base,

Can peruse their penny papers

And see such and such took place,

But the bloke amidst the battle

Sees his own small, sticky sphere,

And hasn't heard what happened

Further forward or down rear.

He doesn't know the northern news,

The southern state's the same,

And he hopes to hell that convoy

Coming closer turns out tame.

So when those books see daylight

And meet him face to face,

He can pick 'em up and so find out

What actually took place.

This poem is about the events during the war being recorded and put in books and
newspapers. The meaning of this poem is how soldiers who fought during the war
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can read about what happened in the newspaper or books to better understand what
was going on. Although, some soldiers are shocked by what they read.

This poem has a rhyme scheme of ABCB.

http://www.world-war-2.info/poems/poems_21.php
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Return to Sender: Died of Wounds

Marion Strobel

Analysis by Danielle Clark

You asked if spring were here: I forgot to say that it was.

Perhaps he wont get his letters either, but in case he does,

Ill jot down for another sailor that buds are beginning to show-

That is, on the bushes.

On either side of the porte cochere

There are clumps of green, but the elm is bare.

A moment ago a pigeon flew

Under the eaves;

Now, as I look, there are two.

Ill tell him that the windows wide,

School boys are playing ball outside,

A girl, like I was, with a plaid hair bow

Trips on her skipping rope to watch one throw.

Pacific Fleet should reach him.

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That letter, more than twenty years ago,

Come back.

Would this, if I should send it to you

This April 1942:

Pigeons green on the bushes

Everything I

See from this window- gateway and sky,

Boys playing ball,

A girl skipping rope,

Return embalmed in an envelope?

This poem is about a person writing to their loved one overseas. They talk about
the spring and everything to see back home, but they fear that this person will not
receive the letter, and it will be returned to the sender.

This poem used a lot of imagery describing the spring back home to the soldier.
There is also a simple rhyme scheme.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=23266
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City Ravaged by Flames

By Sadako Kurihara
Analysis by Adrianna Collins

Houses where wives, children, relatives lived happily:

all now rubble.

Amid rubble ravaged by flames,

the last moments of thousands:

what sadness!

Thousands of people,

tens of thousands:

lost the instant the bomb exploded.

This poem is pretty literally for the fact that its describing what happened before
and after the bomb landed on Hiroshima.

The literary element in this poem is imagery. You can see this in the line Amid
rubble ravaged by flames when the poem is describing this, you can see the
rubble burning.

https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/ttr/2012-v25-n1-ttr0555/1015349ar/
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The Watcher
By Ridgely Torrence
Analysis by Emma Smith

The gemlike eyes for sight,

The vision that lights the being,
The glories of day and night
That wait the glory of seeing,

All these will not avail

Against that blinding power
Before whose glare grow pale
All hues of flesh and flower.

Against the doom to which

The nations rush, divided,
And leave the furrows rich,
Fear-fevered, folly-guided,

To that which waits to grind

The reaping with the reaper,
Which looks upon the blind
And strikes their darkness deeper,

Which ever, from our birth,

Leads down the deathward dances,
For hourly on the earth
War casts its bayonet glances.

The summary is that war is always watching, and the world is constantly,
especially at this time, growing darker. The meaning is a darker world where war is
victorious.

Literary elements are rhyme scheme ABAB for every stanza sight/night,
being/seeing. Its also personification because the war is watching. Theres also
imagery with the description of everything, like beforepale/allflowers.
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https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/toc/detail/70643