The Role of Psychological State in War Poetry

Abstract

This study discusses the role of the psychological state in war poetry by choosing some of the most well-known poets in this field: Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and Rudyard Kipling, for whom war is a dominant idea. Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Rudyard Kipling are the main names who attempted to show their exciting characters through and after the First World War. Wilfred Owen conveyed the truthful reality of that war because he had been part of it. He saw the full horrors of it; the death of his fellow soldiers was brutality and savage imagery in his poems. At the start of that war, Kipling hailed it with a tremendous sense of patriotism and encouraged young men to participate and fight in a war that he considered noble. However, after he witnessed wars with bloody, cruel, and terrible results, he changed his view. On the other hand, Sassoon was so enthusiastic about the war that on his first day, He later lost his confidence in it and became one of those poets who protested against war and emphasized his sense of psychological horror.