Comparing two war poems.

This time we have analysed two poems which deal with the subject of war from two different perspectives, "Children in wartime" by Isobel Thrilling and "The end of summer" by Roger McGough. Some of our writers have given their opinion on which of these two war poems describes the horrors of war in a more powerful way.

Here you can read the poems:                                    

The End of Summer

It is the end of summer

The end of day and cool,

As children, holiday-sated,

Idle happily from school.

Dusk is slow to gather

The pavements are still bright,

It is the end of summer

And a bag of dynamite

Is pushed behind the counter

Of a department store, and soon

A trembling hand will put an end

To an English afternoon.

The sun on rooftops gleaming

Underlines the need to kill,

It is the en of summer

And all is cool, all is still.

Roger McGough

Children in wartime

Sirens ripped open

the warm silk of sleep;

we ricocheted to the shelter

moated by streets

that ran with darkness.

People said it was a storm,

but flak

had not the right sound

for rain;

thunder left such huge craters

of silence,

we knew this was no giant

playing bowls.

And later,

when I saw the jaw of glass,

where once had hung

my window spun with stars;

it seemed the sky

lay broken on the floor.

Isobel Thrilling