Sorry it's taken so long to get round to it but I've finally done a bit of analysis. But not so much that you guys can't put in loads of other ideas!
The poem, 'Enemies' remains to be very anonymous - being anonymous by the persons in the poem, "One took his hand." Or even the setting, "he stood alone in some queer, sunless place." This, I believe highlights the disorientation of whih the troops throughout the war experienced occasionally, as they were made to concentrate solely on the fighting and had forgotten their loaction or their reason for doing so. Sassoon mentions, "Where Armageddon ends," this emphasises the horro of the settins as Sassoon is describing the toop's surroundings to be similar to what one would imagine as the 'end of the world'.
Throughout the poem, there is a great deal of inconsistency and fluidity betewen the sentences; tis accentuates the troop's confusion and possibly mixed emotions of everything about his situation. Unfortunately even the situation alone is not clear; we immediately belive that this is a situation consisting of a British troop being surround by ghosts of German soldiers telling him that "I'd killed them for his sake." Is the narrator ("I") Sassoon himself? Or is it even the British soldier's conscience taunting him of the horror and amoral actions he has fulfilled?
I think this poem is not an imagined meeting of two 'enemies', troops from different sides of the war. Instead, I think that it is German soldiers greeting one of their own dead. This is ironic as it shows camaraderie instead of enmity. The title 'Enemies' is misleading, as it is the person on the outside, the narrative 'I' who is the 'enemy', not the person surrounded by the dead. In this, Sassoon reaffirms the idea that it is ourselves that are most dangerous, not others. He reaffirms the idea that we are the cause and thus also the solution to the war.
ReplyDeleteIn the first stanza there is some religious imagery, as Armageddon in the New Testament is the last battle between good and evil before the Day of Judgment. This could represent the battle of good and evil not in the war (as there is no purely 'good' side in war), but inside people. This is a main conflict presented in this poem, between guilt for killing and forgiveness for deeds done. Also, the 'sunless place' could be reminiscent of Hades, the after world of the greeks, which is traditionally underground (without sunlight). The religious imagery present implies life after death and thus that this soldier is dead.
In terms of format, this poem is split into two stanzas with mimicking rhyme schemes. The first stanza presents the problem, and the second presents the solution. It is clear in the first one that the observer is watching and seeing the man he killed being collected by his comrades. The observer explains the situation in the first four lines and in the last two concludes that the dead man is being received by his dead German friends, all of which the narrator killed in a rage to get to this man 'when for his death my brooding rage was hot'. It is not clear, but one can assume that the other germans had been protecting this man, perhaps because of his rank or some other reason.
In the second stanza, the observer makes it clear that he has shot one of the Germans, 'How I killed them for his sake', which also alludes the crucifixion of Christ, another religious allusion. Instead of making the Germans out to be 'Enemies', Sassoon is making them into martyrs, which shows how the poem is sarcastically titled.
The entire poem up to the last two lines is a confused and slightly disillusioned combination, showing as Steph highlighted, the disorientation the troops felt as well as the mass confusion of feelings, like guilt, anger, and sadness. However, in the last two lines of the poem, the rhyming couplet gives a final conclusion to the confusion, and in a sense 'forgives' the observer and 'absolves' him of his sins. 'At last he turned and smiled' shows the dead man forgiving the observer, turning to him and smiling. And the imagery of the newly dead's hand being taken is quite caring and positive. The last line shows how human the emotions shown in this poem are, and how Sassoon believes that a 'face can make them understand' all that has passed.
I believe that the poem ‘Enemies’ is Sassoon’s way of questioning the self-responsibility of the killing in which has possessed him. I agree with Mikey in that “where Armageddon ends.” is indeed a battle between the good and evil in which the soldiers have to face mentally and physically. There is a caesura on lines 1, 2 and 3 of the first paragraph in which distorts the paragraph this could be interpreted as the conflicting emotions in that the soldiers endure, also presenting a confused and disillusioned feeling. Most importantly the caesura after “Armageddon ends.” mimics the end of the world, in other words the end of a soldiers life on earth and the full stop helps to emphasize this further, making the reader take a breath before starting the next sentence, just like the soldier would take their last breath. This is also presented in Birdsong when Stephen hears “a thick long sigh; it was a sounds he had never heard before, but he knew it was the noise of several men expiring simultaneously.”
ReplyDeleteThe first paragraph focuses on the problem, with the persona being isolated, “alone” in a “queer sunless place.” However this is soon sorted as the “hulking Germans” crowd the dead soldier, these are representations in which were killed by another man out of revenge for the death of a soldier. This could be of a personal experience for Sassoon, in that Robert Graves states that his desire to kill was spurred by the death of his friend David Thomas, in whom was hit by a stray bullet and this is why he volunteered every night to go on hunting patrols to kill the Germans.
Alternatively the second paragraph states a more reflective and revealing tone, in that the triplet “patient, stupid, sullen” proves the ‘enemy’ to be of no threat in the afterlife. The sibilance in “stupid, sullen ghosts” also presents the idea of a calming sound, or again the sound of a soldiers last sigh before death, in a relaxed and passive state.
Basically, I think that the poem states the difference between the living and the dead, rather than the conventional premises of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ on the battlefield.
In agreement with Katy, 'Enemies' is about confronting the question of responsibility of killing in the war. As Steph said as well, it also has a strong sense of isolation that has been thread through the poem as the soldier 'stood alone'.
ReplyDeleteA dead soldier finds himself in the after world, confronted by slain 'hulking Germans'. This is similar to 'Strange Meeting' as the speaker faces an enemy whom he killed. However, in enemies, the soldier did not kill the Germans, but rather a different person did in revenge, the speaker; 'the Germans that i shot when for his death'. Some critics have suggested that this poem is seen as a visionary homage to Sassoon’s deceased friend David Thomas and his brother Hamo for whom he sought revenge. According to Robert Graves, Sassoon often went out on bloodthirsty ventures to go and look for Germans.
There is a strange sense of tranquillity throughout the poem as the soldier appears 'untroubled'. it is ironic how the 'hulking Germans that he once feared are now not dangerous to him and that they are now 'patient, stupid, sullen ghosts of men'. Although there is a sense of relief that now, the soldier is out of the hell of war, there too is a harrowing sadness as the soldier sat and 'longed for days he might of lived and the reader feels a great sense of compassion for the soldier as there is a realisation that his life has been cut drastically short.
The soldier is isolated in that he 'stood alone' in a 'sun less place' whilst 'thronged round him' are the dead Germans. The soldier is furthermore unable to speak ‘no answer he could make' emphasising his isolation. The gentle tranquillity of the soldier pondering on his own, 'half wondering' is juxtaposed by the angry combination of emotions that flows through the speaker as his 'brooding rage' that was 'hot' led to his German killing spree.