
During the World Wars, massive amounts of soldiers and civilians lost their lives because of politicians, and dictators.  There were over sixty million causalities in World War Two, and thirty-eight million casualties in World War One (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica).  Most these causalities came from soldiers losing their lives during action.  Poets Rupert Brooke and Randell Jarrell both saw action during one of the World Wars.  These poets saw firsthand how horrendous war is, and how it turns the most civil of people into savages.  Rupert Brooke’s poem, “The Solider”, and Randall Jarrell “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, are both poems written in perspectives of soldiers who are dealing with their interactions with death.  Brooke’s poem is a solider who is preparing to die, while Jarrell’s poem is written in the perspective of a dead solider. In “The Solider”, the poem illustrates a patriotic theme.  In the poem, Brooke conveys how the solider dying for his country is one of the noblest deaths one can have, and how the solider finds redemption through sacrifice for his country.  While in “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, the tone is sad, and the theme is soldiers just die for “the state” during wars, and how soldiers are disposable.

To truly understand Rupert Brooke and Randall Jarrell poems one must be familiar with the type of warfare and weapons that were used during the World Wars.  The reason why the World Wars had such large causalities was, because of the advances in warfare technology during those times.  During World War must of the land warfare consisted in the trenches.  The reason why most of the battles occurred in the trenches, was because of the advances that occurred in weapons.  Trench warfare was fought by using underground mines, artillery and mortars, machine-guns, poison gas, tanks and armored vehicles, and rifles (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica).  While the trenches were already a dangerous place for soldiers, to add to that was diseases.  Trenches were very close quarters, and diseases would spread rapidly among the soldiers.  With the combination of diseases and advance warfare technology it made the World War One the second deadliest wars.  The deadliest war was World War two.  Some of the greatest battles during World War Two happen in the skies.  The reason why England did not become under Nazi Germany control was, because England won the Battle of England and kept control of the skies. In Jarrell’s poem he discusses aerial warfare, and specially ball turrets.   Ball turrets were on American B-17 and B-24 planes (Truman).  The ball turrets were spherical shaped mount gun turrets that were placed on various areas of the plane.  

While Brooke and Jarrell’s poem are written about different wars there are still a lot of similarities in their poems.  Brooke’s poem is written about World War One, while Jarrell’s poem is written about World War Two.  These poems both illustrate how war is hell, and how death is lurking everywhere a solider goes.  What makes these poems such unique and powerful was both of them are written about soldiers who are dealing with their interactions with death.  In Jarrell’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, is written in the perspective of dead turret gunner.  Brooke’s poem, “The Solider”, is written is the perspective of a solider who is preparing himself to die for his country.  While both poems are written about soldiers dealing with their interaction with death, they have different attitudes toward dying for their country.  

In Rupert Brooke’s poem, “The Solider”, there was more of a patriotic theme to it, and how the solider was totally content with giving his life to his country.  The reason why the solider is fine with giving his life for his country is, because of how appreciative he is to his country, and also in his mind he truly will never die. He will truly never die, because he will live through England for eternity. An example from the solider living for eternity through England is when the speakers says, “If I should die, think only of this of me/ That there's corner of a foreign field/ That is Forever England” (lines 1-3).  In those line the speaker talking about when he dies on the battle field, figuratively he will turn the foreign piece of land into England soil.  The other reason why the solider is content with dying for his country, is because he is so appreciative of how much England has given to him.  So, thankful in fact the only real way he can repay England is by giving his life up for it.  An example of this from the poem is, “Back the thoughts by England Given;/ her sights and sounds dreams happy as her day/ And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness” (11-13).    While the solider in this poem had a very patriotic perspective of giving his life to his country, the solider in, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” did not feel that the same way.  

In Jarrell’s poem, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, the theme of the poem was to show how soldiers were just dying for “the state”, and how they are just disposable.  While in “The solider” the solider was dying for his “motherland”, while in “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, the solider is just dying for “the state”.  The reason why the reader knows this is how the solider feels that way is when he says, “From my mother’s sleep I fell into the state” (line 1).  Instead of this solider living in eternally through his country he is just disposed of, and forgotten about.  An example of this from the text is when the speaker says, “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.”  The solider illustrates how he just disposed of, and forgotten about.  

  Rupert Brooke’s poem, “The Solider”, and Randall Jarrell “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, are both poems written in perspectives of soldiers who are dealing with their interactions with death.  Brooke’s poem is a solider who is preparing to die, while Jarrell’s poem is written in the perspective of a dead solider. In “The Solider”, the poem illustrates a patriotic theme.  In the poem, Brooke conveys how the solider dying for his country is one of the noblest deaths one can have, and how the solider finds redemption through sacrifice for his country.  While in “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”, the tone is sad, and the theme is soldiers just die for “the state” during wars, and how soldiers are disposable.  Understanding the type of warfare that used, and how it was during the World Wars it lets readers have a better understanding of these poems.  While these poems have a lot of similarities they more difference.  The biggest one is Brooke’s poem is patriotic while Jarrell’s poem isn’t.  Both of these poems serve as great alternatives  to show how the World Wars were like
