Thomas Hardy ‘The Men Who March Away (Song of the Soldiers)’ - Sep 1914
Context- Hardy invited by Cabinet Minister alongside other writers e.g. HG Wells to undertake a literary propaganda effort (Sep 1914) - England joined WW1 4th August 1914, poem published a month later
Structure- Five seven line stanzas, unusual structure ABBBAAB. Same words repeated in lines one and six, and same lines repeated at the end of two and seven. Making it very structured and slightly repetitive; both qualities of a marching song. Variety in line-length- 2, 3, 4, 7 shorter than other lines which has effect of bringing a strong rhythm to the poem, again, echoing a marching song
Title- Marching songs allow soldiers to raise spirits and keep time as they march. Reflects two perspectives- onlookers who watch the soldiers, and soldiers themselves
Purpose of poem- government affiliated propaganda OR is Hardy mocking a patriotic war song?
‘What of the faith and fire within us / Men who march away...’ Begins with a rhetorical question- what is it that gives us (soldiers) faith and courage? Poem seeks to answer this question by examining soldier’s feelings/motivations behind going to war
-Alliteration ‘faith/fire’ ‘men/march’ echoes rhythm of marching/continues throughout poem
Poem can be seen to typify the patriotic intention of the best known poetry of the first months of the war
Voice of poetry emphasises ways of Providence (God) who is viewed as omnisciently directing affairs of humanity with wise benevolence
‘Friend with the musing eye’- a skeptical onlooker suspecting war is nothing but a ‘purblind prank’ (blind joke), questioning if the soldiers have been duped into fighting a war they should not put their lives at risk for
‘With doubt and dolorous sigh’ - onlooker sad (dolorous) perhaps about their purpose and the fate awaiting them
‘Can much pondering so hoodwink you?’- soldiers confident the situation is right, and of their victory. Accuse man of ‘pondering,’ thinking for too long until he is hoodwinked (tricked) by his own intellectual way of thinking
-Ambiguous meaning- man watching may be Hardy himself (expressing own thoughtful doubts as to the war) OR patriotic criticism of over-cautiousness
‘Nay. We well see what we are doing’ - Confident one word rebuttal of doubt by soldiers. Alternatively could show overconfidence, no doubts- may express Hardy’s anti-war sentiments- as shown in his later works
‘Some may not see/ Dalliers as they be’ - Those who question war are uncommitted and lazy, or ‘dalliers’. Men’s voice is patriotic, fitting with the times, they declare ‘England’s needs are we’- presenting the nation-state as helpless without it’s heroes
‘Her distress would leave us rueing’ - A common emotive personification of England; pictured as a woman needing rescuing by ‘her’ men. Eg as in Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’
https://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/thomas-hardy-men-who-march-away/
http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Poems_of_War_and_Patriotism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphism