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War Poetry Response

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In the poem Redeployment by Harold Nemerov the two most significant  literary devices are Personification and Imagery. “A soldier’s dead blue eyeballs that he found

Somewhere--hard as chalk, and blue as skate”(Nemerov). This quote is a good example of imagery because it places the mental picture of someone's eyeballs that were blasted out of someone's head. For Personification I chose the quote “And now there are cockroaches in the house, they get slightly drunk on DDT”( Nemerov). This shows Personification because it’s giving cockroaches the human characteristic of being drunk.

In the poem Bosnia Tune by Joseph Brodsky, the two most significant literary terms I found were Repetition and Imagery.  For example of repetition I used “People Die”(Brodsky). The words are used throughout the poem multiple times at the end of each stanza. For Imagery I used “hit by bullets, caught in flames,”(Brodsky). Because I can actually imagine bullets flying through the air and flames raging around me.

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In the poem Camouflaging the Chimera by Yusef Komunyakaa, the two most significant literary terms I found were Imagery and Personification. 

“We tied branches to our helmets/We painted our faces & rifles/with mud from a riverbank/ blades of grass hung from the pockets of our tiger suits.'' (Komunyakaa, 1-4) This is an example of imagery because the author used it to improve our experience and understanding of the poem by using their senses. This helped me understand what this character is doing and where they might be. It shows me that they could be in the woods in the middle of a war hiding from the enemy. 

“The river ran/through our bones. Small animals took refuge against our bodies,..” (Komunyakaa 26-28) This is an example of personification because the author was making inanimate objects, like water and small animals, doing human-like things. This also helped me understand what this character is going through and what is happening. 

In the poem Bosnia Tune by Joseph Brodsky, the two most significant literary terms I found were Comparison and Repetition. 

“People die.” (Brodsky 4,8,12,16,20,24) This quote is an example of repetition because it is at the end of every section except the last one, stating each time that during a time of war, no matter what you are doing people are dying. 

“As you watch the athletes score,/ check your latest statement, or/kissing your child a lullaby,/people die.” (Brodsky 21-24) This is an example of Comparison because it is comparing watching sports, checking a statement, and kissing your child, and no matter what people are still dying. This really tells you how bad war can be with people dying while other people across the ocean are living their normal lives. 

 

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In the poem Redeployment by Harold Nemerov, the two most significant literary terms I found were Imagery and Simile. 

“I tried to wash the dirt out of/My hair and from under my fingernails,” (Nemerov 17/18) is an example of imagery because you can understand the feeling of washing dirt off your body through the author’s words. This helps us understand that even though the war is over the author is still struggling to get past the aftermath of war. 

“A soldier's dead blue eyeballs that he found/Somewhere--hard as chalk, and blue as skate.(Nemerov 8/9) The simile helps give us a description of what the blue eyeballs were like. The man the author was talking about is struggling to forget about the war so he keeps them with him as a souvenir of the war.  

The main message in this poem is that even though the war may be over. It takes a lot of time for everyday life to change back to the way it was. Life is still as dark and gloomy as when the war was still going on.

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In the poem Bosnia Tune by Joseph Brodsky, the two most significant literary terms I found were Repetition and Paradox 

 

“As you watch your athletes score,/check your latest statement, or/kissing your child a lullaby,/people die.”(Brodsky 25/26/27/28) This quote exemplifies the “people die” that the author put at the end of every single stanza. I think the author did this to try to inform us that while we're going through our everyday lives, people are dying in war for us to be able to do those things. 

 

“People die as you elect/ new apostles of neglect,/ self-restraint, etc.--whereby/ people die”(Brodsky 13/14/15/16) There’s a very obvious paradox or contradiction in this quote. The main job of an apostle is to testify and teach Jesus throughout the world. But in this poem the author is implying that our leaders aren’t really doing their job because we are electing new apostles of neglect. 

 

I think the overall message of the poem is to not forget about the people that are dying while you go through your everyday life.

 

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In the poem Redeployment By Harold Nemerov two literary terms that really stood out to me were simile and imagery. 

 

“Hard as chalk and blue as skate”(Nemerov 9) is an example of simile because it’s comparing something to another thing using like or as because it's trying to get you to understand the feeling of something that you don't really feel with something you have touched in your life. This helped me with the understanding of what the eyeballs in the man's pocket and how they felt and looked while comparing like chalk and skate.

 

“But water still comes bloody from the taps, and my pet cat in his disorder vomits worms which crawl swiftly away.”(Nemerov 1,2,3,4) is an example of Imagery because it shows how unpleasant it is to be in war and also so he uses the cat as an example to see how unpleasant it is to see that happen for the people who haven't been in war before. 

In the poem Beautiful wreckage By W.D. EHRHART two literary terms that really stood out to me were Imagery and Repetition

 

“What if I didn't shoot the old lady running away from our patrol or the old man in the back of the head or the boy in the marketplace.”(EHRHART 1,2,3,4) is an example of imagery because you can see the vision and the gruesome of this picture in this sentence you can see the gun being shot and the people fall and running and shows why war can be rough on you 

 

“What if none of it happened the way I said? Would it be a lie? Would the wreckage be suddenly beautiful? Would the dead rise up and walk?¨(EHRHART 21,22,23,24) This is an example repetition because if this wasn't war then would the outcomes be different then what they were? It shows how when being at war it can change who you are.

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“What if none of it happened the way I said?/ Would it be a lie?/ Would the wreckage be suddenly beautiful?/ Would the dead rise up and walk?¨(EHRHART 21,22,23,24)

“What if I didn't shoot the old lady/ running away from our patrol/ or the old man in the back of the head/ or the boy in the marketplace.”(EHRHART 1,2,3,4)

 

“But water still/ comes bloody from the taps, and my pet cat/ in his disorder vomits worms which crawl/ swiftly away.”(Nemerov 1,2,3,4)

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In the poem “Beautiful Wreckage” by W.D. Ehrhart , the two most significant literary terms I found were repetition and imagery. Reading this poem you can tell the author wants the reader to imagine the things this soldier went through. Throughout the poem images start to come in your head of what had happened in this war. What they are feeling, seeing, and understanding. ¨What if the boy-but he didn't have a grenade¨ Quote #1 is stating a contemplation of regret. Repeating the same phrases, ¨what if¨, asking this repetitive phrase of asking, ´what if i didn't do this…’ reflecting the trauma of war. ¨What if i didn't shoot the old lady running away from our patrol, or the old man in the back of the head, or the boy in the marketplace?¨ This quote shows the imagery part of this poem. Describing where this guy was shot and what location gives you the mind to be in the place and see where he was at the time and how it happened. 

In the poem “Redeployment”  by Harold Nemerov, the two most significant literary terms I found were repetition and imagery. When getting a good understanding of the contact of this poem  you really begin to see and understand the trauma this person went through. This soldier has come home from war but is having a hard time adjusting. An example of repetition is… ¨they say the war is over¨ when the author is talking about a trigger point it starts with ¨they say the war is over but…¨ When giving examples when reading you tend to see what this author is describing giving you that imagery characteristic. ¨A soldier's dead blue eyeballs that he found somewhere- hard as calk, and blue as skate. He clicks them in his pocket while he talks. This is an example of imagery as the author is describing the state of these eyes this soldier has found. 

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In the poem Bosnia Tune by Joseph Brodsky the two most significant literary terms that popped out to me were repetition, and imagery. At the end of each section of this poem are the words, “people die”( Brodsky 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28) this helps understand the author's point because it instills into the reader that no matter what people die in war. Whether they fight or not people die, it gives a somewhat reality check feeling to me, because we live in freedom and do not have to worry about going to fight and sacrifice our lives. Where he says “ as you watch athletes score, check your latest statement, or kiss a child a lullaby, people die”( Brodsky 21-24) helps this point to show the price of freedom and how lucky we are to have it. But the price of that freedom is that many, many people, every type of people, have had to sacrifice life as we know it so we can live without that fear. It's surreal because as the author repeats that people die it makes me personally think of life, the most precious thing on earth. As well as how many people die when they didn't want to be young and old, but they had to. The feeling of being sent into war to die with a whole life left to live also pops out to me in this story. Imagery is very present in all parts of this poem but what got me the most was this quote “in the towns with funny names hit by bullets, caught in flames, by and large, not knowing why, people die”( brodsky 5-8) this gives you an image of many many places around this cruel world being destroyed. Think about where we are now and the lives we live, our town's community, other places these peoples homes( same feeling of home we have here) are ravaged by war. It makes me put myself in the shoes of someone and imagine a place as he describes, it helps push the point of how horrible war is. 

 

In the poem beautiful wreckage by W.D Ehrhart repetition and P.O.V pop stand out. Repetition comes throughout the whole poem for example “What if i didn't shoot the old lady running away from our patrol, or the old man in the back of the head, or the boy in the marketplace?”( Ehrhart 1-4) He repeats what if’s across the whole poem, and it shows how much he regrets what he has done, and how much it has impacted him, this also shows pov along with repetition because it tells what he has done that has mentally injured him for life and the regret he has from it, as well as it repeats this over and over to punctuate his point of view. It helps in understanding what he has done and how most will never experience anything of the sort. As well as showing his sorrow, regret, and ptsd he has had to drag with him since he was away.

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In the poem Beautiful Wreckage by W.D. Ehrhart, the two most significant literary terms I found were P.O.V. and Imagery.

“What if none of it happened the way I said?/would it all be a lie?/would the wreckage be suddenly beautiful?/would the dead rise up and walk?” (Ehrhart) This is an example of P.O.VThe author is showing you how they feel through their thoughts. It paints a picture and shows you how the author is thinking instead of how you are thinking. In this case, the author is thinking of the different ways they could have had an outcome they may have been more satisfied with instead of the one they ended up having.

“In Vietnamese, Con Thein means/place of angels. What if it really was/instead of a place of rotting sandbags, incoming heavy artillery, rats, and mud.” (Ehrhart) This is an example of Imagery because the author is using the phrase what if to start off by painting a picture in our minds. Then the author uses descriptive words like rotting sandbags to describe the place they want us to imagine. The author paints this picture for the reader to show what it was actually like for them to experience. The name makes you think of a nice place, but in reality, it was terrible. 

The overall message of the poem is that war is conflicting for the mind.

In the poem redeployment by Harold Nemerov, the two most significant literary terms I found were P.O.V. and simile. 

 

“The end of the war. I took it quietly/enough. I tried to wash the dirt out of/my hair and from under my fingernails,/I dressed in clean white clothes and went to bed./I heard the dust falling between the walls.” (Nemerov) This quote is an example of  P.O.V. because it is telling the reader what PTSD is like for the victim. It is telling how the person is trying to get rid of the war, but it's still with him.

“I know a man/who keeps a pleasant souvenir, he keeps/a soldier died eyeballs he found/ somewhere–hard as chalk, and blue as skate.” (Nemerov) This quote is an example of simile because the author used “as” to compare the eyeballs to being hard as chalk and blue as skate. This isn't something people usually see, someone with eyeballs in his pockets, but the author decided to write about it. The simile helps the readers get a clear vision of what the eyes would probably look, feel, and sound like in the man's pockets. 

The overall message of this poem is that war never truly ends 

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In the poem Beautiful Wreckage by W.D. Ehrhart, the two most significant literary terms I found were P.O.V. and Imagery.

“What if none of it happened the way I said?/would it all be a lie?/would the wreckage be suddenly beautiful?/would the dead rise up and walk?” (Ehrhart 21-24) This is an example of P.O.VThe author is showing you how they feel through their thoughts. It paints a picture and shows you how the author is thinking instead of how you are thinking. In this case, the author is thinking of the different ways they could have had an outcome they may have been more satisfied with instead of the one they ended up having.

“In Vietnamese, Con Thein means/place of angels. What if it really was/instead of a place of rotting sandbags, incoming heavy artillery, rats, and mud.” (Ehrhart 13-16) This is an example of Imagery because the author is using the phrase what if to start off by painting a picture in our minds. Then the author uses descriptive words like rotting sandbags to describe the place they want us to imagine. The author paints this picture for the reader to show what it was actually like for them to experience. The name makes you think of a nice place, but in reality, it was terrible. 

The overall message of the poem is that war is conflicting for the mind.

In the poem redeployment by Harold Nemerov, the two most significant literary terms I found were P.O.V. and simile. 

 

“The end of the war. I took it quietly/enough. I tried to wash the dirt out of/my hair and from under my fingernails,/I dressed in clean white clothes and went to bed./I heard the dust falling between the walls.” (Nemerov 16-20) This quote is an example of  P.O.V. because it is telling the reader what PTSD is like for the victim. It is telling how the person is trying to get rid of the war, but it's still with him.

“I know a man/who keeps a pleasant souvenir, he keeps/a soldier died eyeballs he found/ somewhere–hard as chalk, and blue as skate.” (Nemerov 6-9) This quote is an example of simile because the author used “as” to compare the eyeballs to being hard as chalk and blue as skate. This isn't something people usually see, someone with eyeballs in his pockets, but the author decided to write about it. The simile helps the readers get a clear vision of what the eyes would probably look, feel, and sound like in the man's pockets. 

The overall message of this poem is that war never truly ends 

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Redeployment: 1.) Imagery, Pov. 

2.) Imagery, Pov.

3.) “The end of war. I took it quietly Enough.” (Nemerov, 16) This is an example of Pov. He is struggling with war being over/ he feels like it is still happening. 

“But water still/ comes bloody from the taps, and my pet cat/ in his disorder vomits worms which Crawl/ swiftly away.” (Nemerov, 1-4) This helps the reader feel the same unpleasantness as the speaker. -imagery 

4.) the literary term Pov helps me understand how the character is taking being at home after war and gives me clear examples that he is not taking it well. 

The literary term imagery helps me the reader get an understanding of what is happening in his mind or in his home and this poem gives me clear examples of images i can create in my head and see what is happening. 

5.) he says the war is over but gives examples that make it seem like he thinks its still happening. I think this character is traumatized and he doesn't feel that its real being back in his home. 

In the poem Redeployment by Harold Nemerov , the two most significant literary terms I found were  imagery and Pov. 

 

“But water still comes bloody from the taps, and my pet cat in his disorder vomits worms which Crawl swiftly away.” (Nemerov, 1-4) is an example of imagery because this helps the reader feel the same unpleasantness as the speaker. 

 

 

Bosnia Tune by Joseph Brodsky. 

Jux, repetition 

“People die as you elect new apostles of neglect, self restraint, etc- whereby people die. (brodsky) This was an example of repetition. When a person repeats the same phrase. This is important because hes trying to get this message across so hes using repetition

 

“In small places you don't know of, yet big for having no chance to scream or say goodbye, people die.” (Brodsky) his is an example of jux. Hes talking about how his town is in the middle of war and hes seeing people die.  Hes saying in small places there's a lot that goes on but many on the outside probably don't see there pain but he does. I can tell Hes really struggling by the words hes using but not much emotion. War causes damage and some of that damage can never be fixed.

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In the poem Beautiful Wreckage by W.D. EHRHART, the two most significant literary terms I found were repetition and imagery. An example where I found repetition in Beautiful Wreckage is all throughout the poem it repeats “What if” over and over. 

Juxtaposition- A quote showing juxtaposition in Beautiful Wreckage is “In Vietnamese, Con Thien means place of angels . what if it really was instead of the place of rotting sandbags, incoming heavy artillery, rats and mud.” This is the author's way of getting you to understand the state of Con Thein but using something the opposite of its state to compare to the actual state. 

Understatement- A quote showing repetition is “what if i didn't shoot the old lady/what if the boy/what if it really/what if the the angels“ this is showing repetition because the author continuously repeated “what if” as a way of showing that he is considering all the possibilities of what could've happened. 

In summary Beautiful Wreckage is about how war can affect people's ways of coping in bad situations. 

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In the poem Beautiful Wreckage by W.D. Ehrhart, the most significant literary term I found was imagery. “Instead of the place of rotting sandbags, incoming heavy artillery, rats and mud.” That quote is an example of imagery because that description is really referring to how it’s the opposite of Heaven when you’re at war. This helped me understand how the war had an impact on the soldier's life and can compare what you see vs what he sees. The author's perspective on war is that it’s not beautiful at all. Rather it’s terrifying. 

 

In the poem of Bosnia Tune by Joseph Brodsky, the most significant literary term was repetition. “by large, not knowing why, people die. …self-restraint, etc. –whereby people die. …where our cherubs dread to fly, people die. …kissing your child a lullaby, people die.” (Brodsky). The quote from Bosnia Tune shows that when people are doing their daily life things people are dying and it repeats itself which is an example of repetition. This gave me that when I’m doing something, when people are doing something, people around the world are dying. The author’s perspective is that while we live our daily lives there is soldiers at risk for their lives that are dying for us and don’t seem to care

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The poem” Bosnia Tune” by Joseph Brodsky has two important literary devices used, one is repetition, and the other is plot. The first quote is “as you sip your brand of scotch/ crush a roach or scratch your crotch/as your hand adjusts your tie/ people die” (Brodsky 1-4). This quote is showing the literary term repetition because at the end of every stanza its says people die drilling into your mind that no matter what you do in life people die. The second literary device is the plot “In the towns with funny names hit by bullets, caught in flames, by and large, not knowing why, people die.” (Brodsky 5,6,8) this quote is showing the plot because he's talking about his comrades being shot in war these literary devices explain the authors past history with people dying with guns everywhere, all wars result in death

 

The poem “Beautiful wreckage” by “W.D. Ehrhart '' has a bunch of literary devices, one of them is the title itself “Beautiful Wreckage” (W.D. 1)  which is a paradox because they contradict each other because most Wreckages aren't beautiful. The second literary device is Point of View, the poem Beautiful Wreckage. The author makes statements like “what if i didn't shoot the old lady…the old man in the back of the head…boy in the marketplace (W.D. Ehrhart 1-4) this quote shows the literary device used is pov because he is talking about his part in the war.  War is brutal on the mind as he was thinking back to what he did and if he didnt do it.

 

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In the poem Beautiful Wreckage by W.D. EHRHART, the two most significant literary terms were the uses of Repetition and Imagery. 

“Or what if the boy-but he didn’t have a grenade” (#2) This quote is showing part of the repetition in the poem: the man telling the story talking about what he went through and if things were different while repeating what if. Thinking back to all the things that happened while he was deployed.

“Gaffney didn’t get hit in the knee, Ames didn’t die in the river, Ski didn’t die in the medevac chopper between Con Thien and Da Nang.” (#3) This shows Imagery of what happened while he was deployed, seeing his fellow troops going down in helicopters and dying in rivers. It is truly a horrible site that the author tells using imagery.

The overall meaning of this war poem is the same words in his repetition: what if? What if he never killed anyone in the army? What if he never saw those people die?  “What if none of it happened” (#6) He just wonders what if and tells of the trauma from overseas.

 

In the second poem I chose Bosnia Tune by Joseph Brodsky. The two Lit Terms I saw the most of in this poem were Imagery like the first poem and the second was Character. 

“In the towns with funny names hit by bullets, caught in flames” (# 2) This shows the imagery that the author is trying to display in his writing. Showing what it was like back then in the war. Describing what the streets looked like in the war on fire being shot up as bullets fly by hitting walls and people. 

“Time, whose sharp, blood-thirsty quill parts the killed from those who kill, will pronounce the latter tribe” (#7) This quote shows character the most out of any war poem that we had read in my opinion. It shows how the author or who the author is writing sees what happened as a character calling the bullets blood-thirsty quills. It shows how he thinks about the war as a person or a character.

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In the poem Beautiful Wreckage by W.D. EHRHART, the most significant literary terms are Point of view and Imagery. 

 

“What if I didn’t shoot the old lady/running away from our patrol,/or the old man in the back of the head,/or the boy in the marketplace?/Or what if the boy—but he didn’t/have a grenade, and the woman in Hue/didn’t lie in the rain in a mortar pit/with seven Marines just for food,”(W.D Ehrhary 1-8) is an example of Point of view because the character is talking about his experiences that he went through while he was in war. This helped me understand how war was impacting this character with all the killing he had done in the war which from what I can read he has a form of PTSD. This shows me that the author understands the negative effects of war and isn't just ignoring that there are mental problems that come along with being in a war. 

“Gaffney didn’t get hit in the knee,/Ames didn’t die in the river, Ski/didn’t die in a medevac chopper/between Con Thien and Da Nang.”(W.D Ehrhary 9-12) Is an example of imagery because while i was reading this i could almost see everything he was talking about and i could see and almost feel what he was feeling in that moment because of him seeing all of his fellow soldiers. This helped me understand war because I was able to think and feel what he was going through in those exact moments. This shows me that the author knows and understands that war is not easy nor a game, it's very serious and that you have to deal with a lot of mental stress because of all the deaths around you/ the character. 

 

In the poem Bosnia Tune by JOSEPH BRODSKY, the most significant literary terms are Imagery and Point of view 

As you sip your brand of scotch,/crush a roach or scratch your crotch/as your hand adjusts your tie,/people die./In the towns with funny names/hit by bullets, caught in flames,/by and large, not knowing why,/people die.” (Joseph Brodsky 1-8).  Is and example of point of view because these lines are describing what's happening in other places and that you can almost see what's happening “In towns with funny names/hit by bullets, caught in flames'' (Joseph Brodsky 5-6) made me think and see what is happening in that place. This quote made me better understand War because this shows that it's dangerous and doesn't always have a good outcome because this town has been burnt to the ground and that there are innocent people being killed. This shows me that the author has a better understanding that war doesn't always end with peace or with good and that he understands that there are innocent people dying because either people want territory or want to rule with an iron fist. 

“In small places you don’t know/of, yet big for having no/chance to scream or say goodbye,/people die./People die as you elect/new apostles of neglect,/self-restraint, etc.--whereby/people die.(Joseph Brodsky 9-12)  This quote is an example of point of view because the author is trying to put the reader in the places that are being listed. With that you as the reader you feel and see everything that's happening like with the people who are dying because of the invading soldiers. This quote has helped me better understand war because there's places that are being undertaken and swarmed by wars and battles and before reading these I never really thought about how there are places being destroyed as I'm writing this paper. This shows me that the author is trying to put readers in the perspective of the people that are being invaded and that the author has thought about all these situations and wants readers to understand that war is very serious.

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In the poem Beautiful Wreckage by W.D. EHRHART, the two most significant literary terms I found were repetition and imagery. An example where I found repetition in Beautiful Wreckage is all throughout the poem it repeats “What if” over and over. 

Juxtaposition- A quote showing juxtaposition in Beautiful Wreckage is “In Vietnamese, Con Thien means place of angels . what if it really was instead of the place of rotting sandbags, incoming heavy artillery, rats and mud.” (Ehrhart 13-16) This is the author's way of getting you to understand the state of Con Thein but using something the opposite of its state to compare to the actual state. 

Understatement- A quote showing repetition is “what if i didn't shoot the old lady(Ehrhart 1)/ what if the boy (Ehrhart 5)/what if it really (Ehrhart 14)/what if the the angels (Ehrhart 17)” This is showing repetition because the author continuously repeated “what if” as a way of showing that he is considering all the possibilities of what could've happened. 

In summary Beautiful Wreckage is about how war can affect people's ways of coping in bad situations. 

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In the poem Beautiful Wreckage by W.D. EHRHART, the two most significant literary terms were the uses of Repetition and Imagery. 

“Or what if the boy-but he didn’t have a grenade” (#2) This quote is showing part of the repetition in the poem: the man telling the story talking about what he went through and if things were different while repeating what if. Thinking back to all the things that happened while he was deployed.

“Gaffney didn’t get hit in the knee, Ames didn’t die in the river, Ski didn’t die in the medevac chopper between Con Thien and Da Nang.” (#3) This shows Imagery of what happened while he was deployed, seeing his fellow troops going down in helicopters and dying in rivers. It is truly a horrible site that the author tells using imagery.

The overall meaning of this war poem is the same words in his repetition: what if? What if he never killed anyone in the army? What if he never saw those people die?  “What if none of it happened” (#6) He just wonders what if and tells of the trauma from overseas.

 

In the second poem I chose Bosnia Tune by Joseph Brodsky. The two Lit Terms I saw the most of in this poem were Imagery like the first poem and the second was Character. 

“In the towns with funny names hit by bullets, caught in flames” (# 2) This shows the imagery that the author is trying to display in his writing. Showing what it was like back then in the war. Describing what the streets looked like in the war on fire being shot up as bullets fly by hitting walls and people. 

“Time, whose sharp, blood-thirsty quill parts the killed from those who kill, will pronounce the latter tribe” (#7) This quote shows character the most out of any war poem that we had read in my opinion. It shows how the author or who the author is writing sees what happened as a character calling the bullets blood-thirsty quills. It shows how he thinks about the war as a person or a character.

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In the poem Beautiful Wreckage by W.D. EHRHART, the two most significant literary terms I found were repetition and imagery. An example where I found repetition in Beautiful Wreckage is all throughout the poem it repeats “What if” over and over. 

Juxtaposition- A quote showing juxtaposition in Beautiful Wreckage is “In Vietnamese, Con Thien means place of angels . what if it really was instead of the place of rotting sandbags, incoming heavy artillery, rats and mud.” (Ehrhart 13-16) This is the author's way of getting you to understand the state of Con Thein but using something the opposite of its state to compare to the actual state. 

Understatement- A quote showing repetition is “what if i didn't shoot the old lady(Ehrhart 1)/ what if the boy (Ehrhart 5)/what if it really (Ehrhart 14)/what if the the angels (Ehrhart 17)” This is showing repetition because the author continuously repeated “what if” as a way of showing that he is considering all the possibilities of what could've happened. 

In summary Beautiful Wreckage is about how war can affect people's ways of coping in bad situations. 

In the poem Redeployment by HAROLD NEMEROV, the two significant literary terms I found were repetition and imaginary. A example of repetition in Redeployment is repeated saying “They say the war is over”(Nemerov 1), “The war may be over” (Nemerov 6), “The end of the war” (Nemerov 16) This is showing repetition because the author continuously repeat how the war this and the war that.  It's showing us that war is still on his mind. In addition I also found imagery, an example of imagery in the poem is where it says “he keeps a soldier's dead blue eyeballs that he found somewhere--hard and chalk, and blue and skate.” (Nemerov 8 & 9) This is showing imagery because it's describing something to the point that you imagine what it would look like to you.

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In the poem Beautiful Wreckage by W.D. Ehrhart, the most significant literary term I found was imagery. “Instead of the place of rotting sandbags, incoming heavy artillery, rats and mud.” (Ehrhart). That quote is an example of imagery because that description is really referring to how it’s the opposite of Heaven when you’re at war. This helped me understand how the war had an impact on the soldier's life and can compare what you see vs what he sees. The author's perspective on war is that it’s not beautiful at all. Rather it’s terrifying. In the poem of Bosnia Tune by Joseph Brodsky, the most significant literary term was repetition. “by large, not knowing why, people die. …self-restraint, etc. –whereby people die. …where our cherubs dread to fly, people die. …kissing your child a lullaby, people die.” (Brodsky). The quote from Bosnia Tune shows that when people are doing their daily life things people are dying and it repeats itself which is an example of repetition. This gave me that when I’m doing something, when people are doing something, people around the world are dying. The author’s perspective is that while we live our daily lives there is soldiers at risk for their lives that are dying for us and don’t seem to care

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In the poem Beautiful Wreckage by W.D. Ehrhart, the two most significant literary terms I found were repetition and imagery. 

 

“What if I didn’t shoot the old lady running away from our patrol, or the old man in the back of the head, or the boy in the marketplace?” (Ehrhart 1-4). This quote represents imagery because you can picture in your mind the narrator shooting an old lady and a boy in the back of his head.

 

“What if the angels were Ames and Ski…What if none of it happened the way I said?” (Ehrheart 17, 21). This quote represents repetition because he keeps saying “what if”. It seems like he has so much regret that the only thing he can say to validate himself is “what if”.

 

The overall message is that war makes you blame yourself and forces you to take other people’s lives. 

 

In the poem The last Lie by Bruce Weigl, the two most significant literary terms I found were imagery and pov. 

 

“He didn’t toss the can, he wound up and hung it on the child’s forehead and she was backwards into the dust of our trucks” (Weigl 5-7). The quote represents imagery because you can picture the soldier winded up his arm and throwing an open can so hard that it embeds itself in a little girl’s forehead. 

 

“I grit my teeth to myself to remember that girl smiling as she fought off her brothers and sisters” (Weigl 15-16). This quote represents pov because he is cringing and hurt by the fact that he saw a girl smiling while having to fight her brothers and sisters

 

The overall message of the poem seems to be that in war survival is more important than processing emotions. 

 

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  1. Sallee

Mrs. Chick 

10/13/2022

 

In the poem “Beautiful Wreckage” by W.D. Ehrhart , the two most significant literary terms I found were repetition and imagery. Reading this poem you can tell the author wants the reader to imagine the things this soldier went through. Throughout the poem images start to come in your head of what had happened in this war. What they are feeling, seeing, and understanding. ¨What if the boy-but he didn't/ have a grenade¨ (Ehrhart 5-6) Quote #1 is stating a contemplation of regret. Repeating the same phrases, ¨what if¨, asking this repetitive phrase of asking, ´what if i didn't do this…’ reflecting the trauma of war. ¨What if i didn't shoot the old lady /running away from our patrol,/ or the old man in the back of the head/, or the boy in the marketplace?¨ (Ehrhart 1-4) This quote shows the imagery part of this poem. Describing where this guy was shot and what location gives you the mind to be in the place and see where he was at the time and how it happened. 

In the poem “Redeployment”  by Harold Nemerov, the two most significant literary terms I found were repetition and imagery. When getting a good understanding of the contact of this poem  you really begin to see and understand the trauma this person went through. This soldier has come home from war but is having a hard time adjusting. An example of repetition is… ¨they say the war is over¨ (Nemerov 1) when the author is talking about a trigger point it starts with ¨they say the war is over but…¨ When giving examples when reading you tend to see what this author is describing giving you that imagery characteristic. ¨A soldier's dead blue eyeballs that he found/ somewhere- hard as calk, and blue as skate./ He clicks them in his pocket while he talks/.” (Nemerov 8-10) This is an example of imagery as the author is describing the state of these eyes this soldier has found. 

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