“They” by Siegfried Sassoon and “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke are two poems that focus on  war. These poems speak about war negatively instead of positively. The negative side effects of war in the poem include death, physical injuries, and psychological illnesses.The writer’s use different writing methods to show these side effects of war. The writer’s use different perspectives to make different appeals to the reader's emotions. “They” uses third person point of view, while “The Soldier” uses first person point of view. The emotions that they convey are different as well. “They” gives off the emotion of anger and confusion. “The soldier” gives off the emotion grief and sadness. These emotions are used capture different audiences. People are different, so these differences in the poems are what gets the message across to a wider variety of people. By stressing the impact that war has on the soldiers, their families, and the community, the poets are persuading the readers that there should be no more war. By presenting this argument, the poets were trying to make the world more peaceful.

The historical backgrounds of the poems date back to World War I, which was from 1914-1918. “They” was written in 1914 and “The Soldier” was written in 1917. World War I was known as The Great War. It was known as The Great War because it involved many countries. This war is different from other wars because it was the first war to involve more that two countries. This war left Europe in shambles. Due to the fact that the war was fought in the Europe, many things like homes, jobs, and families were destroyed. This war left approximately 10 million people dead ( Prost, 2016). These poems are a reflection of how the poets viewed World War I. The speakers portrayed real life events that could have happened to soldiers. In the poem “The Soldier” The letter that was written was common of most soldiers fighting in the war. In the poem “They” the injuries of the soldiers were also common to World War I because, as the soldiers said, “We’re none of us the same” (Sassoon 1917,  line 7). The injuries the soldiers faced were physical and psychological. 

Though war is a physical battle between opposing sides, people involved can suffer many psychological effects of war. 

The [World Health Organization] estimated that, in the situations of armed conflicts        throughout the world, "10% of the people who experience traumatic events will have serious mental health problems and another 10% will develop behavior that will hinder their ability to function effectively. The most common conditions are depression, anxiety and psychosomatic problems such as insomnia, or back and stomach aches.” ( Murthy & Lakshminarayana 2006, 25) 

This shows that war has many effects on people’s lives. “They” implies psychological problems without explicitly stating it. In the poem the Bishop and the soldiers say the soldiers are not the same as before they went to war (line 2, 7). Not everybody who comes back from war is physically injured, but according to the soldiers and the Bishop, the soldiers are all affected somehow. This is where the psychological effects come into play. “They” focuses on the physical and implies the psychological problems, however, “The Soldier” focuses on death (Brooke 1914, line 1; 14). “The Soldier” is a letter from a soldier. The soldier is writing to a loved one to tell the what is going to happen and how they should deal with it. These problems are negatively affecting people's lives.These poets are educating readers on how war is causing death and ruining society.

The more points of views the poets use, the more people they will attract in order to educate them. “They” uses 3rd person point of view( line 2). Third person point of view is when the speaker is on the outside looking. The purpose of this perspective is to keep you from information, but make you more tempted to find out what information you are missing out on. This is the total opposite from 1st person point of view that is used in “The Soldier”(line 1). First person point of view makes you an actual character in the story. It helps you relate the story you are reading to your life. “It connotes a truth, an intimacy, an authentic perspective, and thus a power unlike any other” (Cohen 2014). By these poems using different point of views allows for connections with different audiences and different emotions.

The poems appeal to the readers’ feelings in different ways. “They” makes the readers feel angry and confused. By reading the poem, the readers may be pushed to being confused about why God made the soldiers put their lives in danger by fighting in a war (Sassoon 1917, line 12). The poem makes the readers wonder why the soldiers had to put their lives in danger, knowing that they weren’t ever going to be the same again. Reading the poem causes the readers to be  angry at the Bishop for saying that it was God’s war, and angry at God for not protecting the soldiers. In “The Soldier” grief and loss are emotions that appeal to the reader. A soldier is writing a letter to a family member or loved one in order to tell them how he wants to be remembered if he doesn’t make it back out of the war. He is writing the letter because he knows that he is not going to make it out of the war alive. The perspective that the letter was written in makes the reader feel the emoting strongly. Reading these poems and feeling all of these emotions  makes the effects of war more real to the reader.

Overall, war impacts people’s lives in many ways. These poems make emotional appeals to the readers in order to show how war affects people mentally and physically. I feel that soldiers should be highly respected. I say this because they risk their lives every day in order to protect some else’s. However, I feel that war needs to stop. By stopping war we can eliminate the tragedies and injuries that happen to people each year. We cannot keep fighting each other and destroying each other’s lives.
