Assignment

(War Literature)

Submitted To:
Mam Abeera Waseem
Submitted By:
Group # 4
 Hassan Aziz
 Aqib Shahzad
 Noor Zahra
 Haider Ali
 Nazia Bibi

Program:
BS-English (Morning)
Semester:
7th

University of Education, Lahore

D.G.Khan Campus
Many Sisters to Many Brothers
By: Rose Macaulay

When we fought campaigns (in the long Christmas rains)

With soldiers spread in troops on the floor,
I shot as straight as you, my losses were as few,
My Victories as many, or more.

And when in naval battle, amid cannon’s rattle,

Fleet met fleet in the bath,
My cruisers were as trim, my battleships as grim,
My submarines cut as swift a path.

Or, when it rained too long, and the strength of the strong
Surged up and broke a way with blows,
I was as fit and keen, my fists hit as clean,
Your black eye matched my bleeding nose.

Was there a scrap or ploy in which you, they boy,

Could better me? You could not climb higher,
Ride straighter, run as quick (and to smoke made you sick)
…… But I sit here, and you’re under fire.

Oh, it’s you that have the luck, out there in blood and muck:
You were born beneath a kindly star;

All we dreamt, I and you, you can really go and do,

And I can’t, the way things are.
In a trench you are sitting, while I am knitting
A hopeless sock that never gets done.
Well, here’s luck, my dear; … and you’ve got it,
no fear;
But for me …… a war is poor fun.

Biography:
Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay, DBE (born 1 August 1881, England-died 30 October 1958) was a
British writer. She published 35 books, mostly novels but also biographies and travel writing.
She was educated at Oxford High Schools for girls and read Modern History at Somerville
College at Oxford University.
During World War 1, Macaulay worked in the British Propaganda Department, after some time
as a nurse, and Later as a civil servant in the war office.
During Interwar period, she was a sponsor of Peace Pledge Union.
Reviewers have described Macaulay as, “one of the few significant English novelists of the 20 th
century to identify herself as a Christian and to use Christian themes in her writing”. She was
created a Dame of the British Empire (DBE) in 1958, the year she died, aged 77.

Analysis:
As an ambulance driver for the London Axillary Service during the Great War, Rose Macaulay
witnessed a very different type of war in comparison to that of the soldier fighting in the trenches
overseas. Nonetheless, her war poetry not only gives notice to the female experience of warfare
but makes room for women writers to the female experience of warfare but makes room for
women writers to be included in the genre of war writing. What to be found more intriguing
about Macaulay is her honest, unambiguous, perception of war as she assesses the impact of war
on the people at home. She concerns herself with the banal life experienced by women at home
on English soil but illustrates that women have equal rights to participates in combat abroad as
evident from this poem.
The current idea of “the Great War” derives primarily from images of the trenches in France and
Belgium.
(Paul Fusell, The Great war and Modern Memory: xvi)
This means that women’s writing concerning warfare was excluded from the genre of war poetry
due to their position as non-combatants until recently. Thus, Macaulay’s war writing is
significant in order to argue for the inclusion of women within this genre.
Macaulay’s poem, Many Sisters to Many Brothers conveys the commonplace act of writing to a
soldier. She speaks on behalf of all women anxiously awaiting the safe return of their brothers
from the trenches of France and Belgium. Similarly, the title evolves the form of an epistolary (a
letter), an unusual form for war poems to adopt.
In first stanza of the poem, Macaulay is talking about the scenes of war when the troops of
soldiers were sent in the battlefield, we (the females who were not allowed to fight the war)
started campaigns, provided services to the soldiers. Putting up feminism, she speaks on behalf
of all women. In suggesting that her “losses were / as few, / My victories as many, or more”,
Macaulay denotes that she suffers as little and triumphs as much as her brother at war.
In second stanza, she talks about the novel battles. She says that as the war was going on, the
situation/scenario was so terrifying that the boats were shaking in the water due to the highness
of cannons. In line, “My cruisers were as trim, my battleships as grim”, she refers to the
horrifying scenario of war from which her brothers / loving ones came out through and through.
In third stanza, she says that after a long duration of war, when her tired and broken up brothers
returned home, “I was still fit and keen and my fists are clean”, but she suffered too without
going in the battlefield. Indeed, the poetess appears to endure the same adversity as her brother
and indeed, even the physical wounds of war are experienced by the female voice as she posits:
“Your black eye matched my bleeding nose.”
In addition to expressing the anxiety in terms of awaiting the safe return of men from the
trenches, Macaulay evokes that gender inequality dominated the 1910’s and in the poem, we
witness the poetess arguing that she is just as good as her brother.
In fourth stanza, the female voice seems envious of her brother’s experience in the trenches and
suggests that they should be treated as equals, adding a feminist element to the poem as
Macaulay blatantly states, “Was there a scrap of ploy in which you, / could better me? You
could not climb / higher, / Ride straighter, run as quick.”
Thus, in arguing for her equal talent to climb trees and run fast, the poetess insinuates that
women one just as capable as men to engage in combat.
In the next lines, she is sad on her luck that they (females) are unlucky to do what her brothers
are doing. They (her brothers) are born under a kind star which bestowed them the good luck.
The concluding stanza further stresses the notion of gender inequality in terms of highlighting
woman’s designated role at home and man’s responsibility to fight for his country as Macaulay
laments:
“All we dreamt, I and you, you can
really / go and do, / And I can’t, the way
things are. / In a trench you are sitting,
While I am’ knitting /A hopeless sock that
never gets done.”
Fundamentally, she portrays that a woman’s ambition of participating in combat abroad are
“hopeless” as instead, she is encouraged to recognize and accept her place at home according to
social norms.
Woman is excluded from adopting a role in the violence of war and the poetess portrays a sense
of uselessness at the limited roles and responsibilities available for women at this time as she sits
at home, knitting, of course.
THE SUPERFLUOUS WOMAN
By: Vera Brittain

Ghosts crying down the vistas of the years,

Recalling words
Whose echoes long have died,
And kind moss grown
Over the sharp and blood-bespattered stones
Which cut our feet upon the ancient ways.

But who will look for my coming?

Long busy days where many meet and part;

Crowded aside
Remembered hours of hope;
And city streets
Grown dark and hot with eager multitudes
Hurrying homeward whither respite waits.

But who will seek me at nightfall?

Light fading where the chimneys cut the sky;

Footsteps that pass,
Nor tarry at my door.
And far away,
Behind the row of crosses, shadows black
Stretch out long arms before the smouldering sun.

But who will give me my children?

Reference to Context:
The poem is written in the context of world war first.
Genre:
The poem is an elegy.
Rhyme Scheme:
Poem has no rhyming scheme so it is a blank verse.
Major Theme:
Theme of loneliness is the major theme of this poem.
Speaker:
Speaker is a woman who feels herself like a poor spirit; waiting for the pleasurable moment,
when will her loved ones return to home from the bloody World War first?
Tone of Speaker:
The tone of speaker is mournful.
Purpose of writing:
The purpose of writing is to inform the readers about the feelings and emotions of the family of
soldiers, who lost their youth in the bloody wars.

Biography:
English writer Vera Brittain is probably known best for her novel, which was called Testament
of Youth, about her experiences during the WW1 which brought about her belief in pacifism and
the tragic futility of war.
She was born on December 29th 1893 in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, the daughter of
well-off parents who owned several paper mills. She had a younger brother, Edward. The family
moved north to Derbyshire when Vera was still in infancy but then she was sent to boarding
school in Surrey when she was thirteen. Vera was a rebellious child and, growing up was
discontented with the lot of women in society.
In 1914 war broke out and Vera encouraged her brother to join up. At that time, like many
others, she was seduced by the perceived glamour of war and later stated: "I was carried away
by the war time emotions and deceived by the shining figure of patriotism".
However, this optimism was quickly replaced by a realization of the horror and futility of the
destruction of so many men, a horror shown to her during her service as a volunteer field nurse
in the summer of 1915. Her brother, two friends and her fiancé Roland were all killed. These
experiences would form the basis of her 1933 novel Testament of Youth, her semi-
autobiographical book which would later be made into a film.
In November 1966 a fall in a London street, in which she sustained several broken bones,
precipitated her physical and mental decline. She died March 29th 1970 in Wimbledon, London
and her ashes were scattered on her brother’s grave at an Italian WW1 battlefield site, as she
requested.

Analysis:
Poem is taken from the novel " Testament of Youth" written by English writer Vera Brittain.
The poem is about the woman who lost her loved ones in the war. Now she is alone. No one
meets her, no one is ready to find her. All the people are anxious to meet their relatives. People
are passing away from her home but no one stay at her home. No one stops to talk with her.
In the first stanza, the speaker begins with the mournful words. In the first line of the poem, a
woman is anxious to watch a pleasing a pleasing view, especially one seen through a long
narrow opening. "Ghosts crying" shows that she became like a poor soul of a deceased person
who is crying to see the pleasing view. The woman is recalling the words and trying to remember
the past, which has lost. The words that are ended up. Poetess describes the sharp and bloody
stones which are barbarous and blood stained. The "blood-bespattered" stones symbolize the
bloodshed of that era. The blood of the innocent people is on the stone. Some simple and small
leafy plants grown, on the bloody stones. These bloody stones cut the feet from archaic ways. At
the end of first stanza, she asks a question, but who will be waiting for me? This question shows
the loneliness of the woman who lost her close relatives in the war.
Theme of loneliness is the major theme in this poem. In the second stanza of the poem, poetess
describes the aloneness of a woman among the crowded people. She describes the situation of
the city, where all people are busy in their works. People meet with each other and depart aside.
This stanza depicts that weather is hot in the city.
Due to hot weather all the people are rushing towards their homes to embrace peace. The streets
are hot and dark. Darkness shows the loneliness again. Woman is looking towards her relatives
but no one is ready to find her. Woman becomes hopeless. At the end of the stanza; she asks a
question that who will seek me at night? She is all alone now, as she lost her loved ones in the
war. But those who survived, are rushing to the homes. They are anxious to meet their family but
woman has lost her family in the war. So, she feels loneliness.
In the third stanza of the poem, she talks about the sun that is setting toward his home. Now it is
evening time, the sun light turns to dim at the end of chimney’s length.
People pass away from my home but no one stop at my door. No one comes to end my
loneliness. And far away, black shadows behind the row of crosses turn their long arms before
the sun. It shows sun is also going to his home. Then she asks a question, but who will return my
children to me?