The poems ‘War’ by Australian poet Mary Gilmore and ‘Enemy Friend’ by American poet Penny Rock are arguably two of the most meaningful poems revealing two very different sides of war, each with different impacts on the reader.
Both poems, apart from both being written by woman and revolving around war, are very different poems. While ‘War’ by Mary Gilmore is a powerfully emotional poem, ‘Enemy Friend’ by Penny Rock is a deeply challenging poem. ‘War’ tells the story of a mother grieving over her lost son, while ‘Enemy Friend’ explores the depth of war and enemies becoming friends. It’s the use of their poetic devices that the imagery of the poem becomes electrifying. Gilmore’s poems imagery heightens your natural mothering side to surface and manipulates you to feel the emotion the poet expresses. Compared to Rock’s poem where its imagery expresses more of a sympathetic and friendly side of you. Rock’s use of imagery really paints the picture for you, allowing you to feel as though you are there, standing as the poet had and experiencing everything written. It’s the strange but alluring experiences of war the two poets had, that makes their poems so different, yet alike.
“Enemy Friend” is challenging to the reader and the image of war, because it expresses a side to war that many don’t understand, it’s this instinctive thought that ‘war is war and people die’ that challenges the reader when reading this because that whole thought process is changed. The readers thought is changed from ‘war is war, people die’ to ‘why are we fighting people who've done nothing to us?’ This is compared to “War” which is a confronting because of the painfully true emotion. It’s this painful emotion, with its sharp ability to be almost physical that makes it so confronting. It's not challenging the idea of war, it's confronting the readers on the raw emotions felt in war.
The main point that made these poems so distinctively different is the representation of the wars they were written in. "War" was written in World War II, a time were our soldiers were called to allied countries to help defend them from attacks on Germany, the loss of soldiers were high. While "Enemy Friend" was written in the Vietnam War, a time were communism was a strong priority to obtain in Vietnam, soldiers often spent a lot of time with locals, enemies becoming friends.
Both poems, apart from both being written by woman and revolving around war, are very different poems. While ‘War’ by Mary Gilmore is a powerfully emotional poem, ‘Enemy Friend’ by Penny Rock is a deeply challenging poem. ‘War’ tells the story of a mother grieving over her lost son, while ‘Enemy Friend’ explores the depth of war and enemies becoming friends. It’s the use of their poetic devices that the imagery of the poem becomes electrifying. Gilmore’s poems imagery heightens your natural mothering side to surface and manipulates you to feel the emotion the poet expresses. Compared to Rock’s poem where its imagery expresses more of a sympathetic and friendly side of you. Rock’s use of imagery really paints the picture for you, allowing you to feel as though you are there, standing as the poet had and experiencing everything written. It’s the strange but alluring experiences of war the two poets had, that makes their poems so different, yet alike.
“Enemy Friend” is challenging to the reader and the image of war, because it expresses a side to war that many don’t understand, it’s this instinctive thought that ‘war is war and people die’ that challenges the reader when reading this because that whole thought process is changed. The readers thought is changed from ‘war is war, people die’ to ‘why are we fighting people who've done nothing to us?’ This is compared to “War” which is a confronting because of the painfully true emotion. It’s this painful emotion, with its sharp ability to be almost physical that makes it so confronting. It's not challenging the idea of war, it's confronting the readers on the raw emotions felt in war.
The main point that made these poems so distinctively different is the representation of the wars they were written in. "War" was written in World War II, a time were our soldiers were called to allied countries to help defend them from attacks on Germany, the loss of soldiers were high. While "Enemy Friend" was written in the Vietnam War, a time were communism was a strong priority to obtain in Vietnam, soldiers often spent a lot of time with locals, enemies becoming friends.