American Poets Respond to the Korean War

8/19/2019 American Poets Respond to the Korean War

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Korean War Poetry


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Korean War

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First war where it was not clear to the American people what the purpowar was (the threat of communism was very abstract to average Ameri• Americans did not conceive of the Korean War (or the Vietnam War) as • Americans thought it would be a “limited war• ! million "# soldiers rotated through Korean War• $raft age was lowered from %& to &' and service time was epanded fr

% years (draft eisted from World War until the end of the Vietnam Wa• War was a new *ind of war+ combination of conventional war and gueril

guerilla war was di-cult for Americans to .ght against, /eneral 0acArtre1uested to drop %2 atomic bombs on border between 0anchuria and to create a “wall of radiation, instead .rebombed every city4village nor!'th parallel5 resulting in &66s of thousands of civilian deaths, .rst use o

• American public support for the war never eceeded 768 of population


3/13

William 9hildress5 “Korea :ound&;7%Braced against the rise and fall of the ocean5 Aholding the rail5 we listen to the shrill :complaining of the waves against the huII5 :

and see the Golden Gate rise with our motion< A

#ome hours previous5 bearing du=els 9

as heavy as our thoughts5 we wound inward $4war (internal slant

li*e slaves in some gigantic pyramid5 $4pyr (internal slant rhyme)selected by our pharaoh for burial 9against our wills< 3ow we watch Alcatra> ?4@>

sin* into the water5 and visuali>e ?4@>

the pale5 amorphous mas*s of prisoners5 $4ers (slant rhyme

whose lac* of freedom guarantees their lives< ?


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9ollective point of view• one of the poem (tone suggests fear and burden) comes from th

and adBectives+ braced5 shrill5 complaining5 bearing5 heavy5 slavespale<

• rony in the image of Alcatra>+ murder is illegal5 ecept in war• "nilateral power is contrasted against powerlessness• against our wills+ three levels of meaning+ the ship is li*e a priso

people against their wills, 768 of American soldiers (& are safe from having to die in the war becaucriminals4murderers5 while lawabiding citi>ens must ris* their live


5/13

“Eetter Gome

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Free verse poem• ?pistolary poem• HeIects 9hildressJs agricultural bac*ground (migrant farmer)• one is of empathy with the victims of war• mages are horri.c+ the swollenbellied5 threadbare5 ragged childre• "ses metaphors of plants as it develops idea of starvation•

“ is both sonic and visual (sounds of become physical shapes “ the Iowers4of their faces, the ma*ing a Iower on the printethese Iowers have “petals all torn5 and suddenly the “L is transan open mouth5 a begging mouth5 a mouth that moans5 a hole tha.lled< “We give4them everything in our pac*s4and still they moan5though they “will never sing4again


6/13

“Eetter Gome

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9hildress invo*es “0other5 as if see*ing maternal comfort, 9empathy with the children is so profound it is li*e he is child5• 9hildress wants to go home5 and at .rst it seems to be spare

horror of seeing starving children<• “With Bust one .eld of Kansas grain54 what l could do for them

abundance of America is contrasted against the conditions in• :oth poems by 9hildress o=er subtle criticisms of the Korean

American military mindset in World War had been as “liberKorea it was as “containment


7/13

homas 0c/rath&;&2&;;6

• “de to the American $ead in Asia (originally titled “de toAmerican $ead in Korea (whyM)

• #imilar strategy employed in .lms and V to use Korean Warabout Vietnam War (M*A*S*H5

• he poem was written in &;N%5 during the Vietnam War• vert criticism of the involvement of "# in wars is hinted at i

title5 while the poem argues it is folly to die as a soldier for pnot your own


8/13

/od love you now5 if no one else will ever59orpse in the paddy5 or dead on a high hill

n the .ne and ruinous summer of a war

Oou never wanted<

• Addresses plural dead soldiers• #tarts to build an argument that soldiers are pawn

draftees forced to .ght against their wills (attac*s of patriotism and courage)


9/13

All your false Iags were

f bravery and ignorance5 li*e grade school maps+

9olors of countries you would never see

"ntil that wee*end in eternity

When5 laughing5 well armed5 perfectly ready to *ill

he world and your brother5 the safe commanders sent

Oou into your future<

• #oldiers go to war unaware of why• :egins criticism of the commanders as those who do not ris*

lives but send others to die• “Oour brother has a 9hristian undertoneDall people are brot

humans• Oour future+ your death


10/13

h5 dead on a hill5$ead in a paddy5 leeched and tumbled to

A tomb of footnotes<

• he oh is an ironic use of conventional use of “ohDwhich trais used to elevate the subBect with reverence

• Hepeats images from beginning of poem (images of both high pand low positionsdeath is the same regardless)

• Footnotes are additional information that are secondary to the trefer to< his suggests their deaths are not maBor historically recmoments but that death is anonymous and superceded by the lstory of “the war


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We mourn a changeling+ you+Gandselled to poverty and drummed to war

:y distinguished masters whom you never *new<

• #pea*s to how the wor*ing class5 lower class5 uneducated

ethnic minorities made up the maBority of those Americanwere drafted or recruited after World War < hey are turnthese origins into soldiers (in a narrative of selfbetterme

• he “distinguished masters are the military classuppeeducated5 empowered5 white5 male o-cers and governmadministrators who sent the men to war<


12/13

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Part % presents the idea that the soldiers have bcultivated to believe in the ideas of the state forthey .ght from childhood5 or that they simply .gbecause they believe they have no choice or havreceived education or otherwise evolved to undethe falsity of patriotism or courage

• o the rulers war is a game of containment agIood (in this case5 of 9ommunism)5 thus the imathe tennis rac*et and the Ar*


13/13

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Part ! focuses on America5 on the propaganda and rhetoturn the deaths of soldiers into higher ideas of patriotismhonor (funereal images5 memorials)

• Eife goes on as usual (nature continues5 and business gousual5 with no change in the universe occuring as a resudeath of the soldiers)

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one is angry5 bitter5 ironic5 suggesting disillusionment wAmerican society and war< Poem is meant to provo*e emresponse from readers<

• Poetry challenges the status 1uo, raises 1uestions, the mis implied and indirect5 but does not recommend a solut

American Poets Respond to the Korean War

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