War Poetry - Mollie

The scope of war poetry is wider then I originally perceived it to be. I had little knowledge of what this genre of poetry is and therefore would’ve previously considered my self a skeptical reader. War poetry is often a misunderstood genre of poetry; this often leads the audience to be more skeptical in classifying poetry as “war Poetry.” In order to understand the tendency for readers to be skeptical of war poetry we must first understand its wide scope and variety in subject matter. When you approach the following poems: “Monday Poem” by DJ Renegade and “Sunday Morning” by Wallace Stevens. The poems differ greatly in not only their approach but also subject matter and yet they are both considered to be apart of the war poetry genre. Through this differences the skeptical readers begin to raise their objections.

The poem “Sunday Morning” has been determined to be an allusion to World War I where “Monday Poem” is seen as a response or an almost counter Wallace Steven’s poem. The skeptical reader may view “Monday Poem” as a commentary on our society rather than a war, however the poem speaks directly to Steven’s and his poem, “wonder if Wallace Stevens ever held a gunshot friend and watched his eyes leak light”(Renegade). Skeptical readers could view this in various ways thus creating the confusion that is widespread throughout what defines war poetry. Often people do not understand what war poetry truly is, they view it as only poetry regarding battles or other significant wartime events this causes them to be skeptical to deem other works as war poetry.

What makes “Monday Poem” a war poem then? There are many different ways it can be classified as a war poem in whatever way a skeptical reader would approach it. The poem can be viewed as a commentary on inner community violence, and gang wars. A reference to community or gang violence is made within the line, “carnations taped to the stop sign/ or the empty wine bottles arranged around it”(Renegade). The skeptical reader may claim that gang violence or intercommunity violence is not defined as a war but when you understand all that war poetry can represent, for example conflict and all the emotions that are connected to it. These can be contextualized within poetry and thus defined as War Poetry.

Furthermore while the skeptical reader may continue to claim that the poem cannot be categorized as war poetry because it does not depict a specific battle it can be argued the term “death” within both war and battles is the same within this poem. In war we often deal with unfair, or unnecessary deaths, the same can be seen within DJ Renegades poem as well. The deaths they seem to commentary on were unnecessary and maybe viewed as they would be in wars seen in the line, “I remember Ronald shot on his front steps…and say the same logic which produced that poem/produced the mushroom cloud over Nagasaki”(Renegade). The skeptical readers claim can be countered with this argument that the deaths of the people in the community are parallel to that of the deaths during Japan in World War II, almost senseless and unnecessary.

The skeptical readers come from having a limited knowledge on the extent and scope of war poetry and all that it can be. When we look at it through a wide lens and draw parallels between themes within the poems the objections can easily be countered.