Crippled for life at seventeen,
His great eyes seems to question why:
with both legs smashed it might have been
Better in that grim trench to die
Than drag maimed years out helplessly.
A child - so wasted and so white,
He told a lie to get his way,
To march, a man with men, and fight
While other boys are still at play.
A gallant lie your heart will say.
So broke with pain, he shrinks in dread
To see the 'dresser' drawing near;
and winds the clothes about his head
That none may see his heart-sick fear.
His shaking, strangled sobs you hear.
But when the dreaded moment's there
He'll face us all, a soldier yet,
Watch his bared wounds with unmoved air,
(Though tell-tale lashes still are wet),
And smoke his Woodbine cigarette.
Eva Dobell
Dobell uses personification when saying "gallant lie your heart will say",this tells us that the young boy lied to get in the army and that Dobell views him as brave and heroic. Dobell also uses Sibilance, "shaking, strangled sobs". The repeating S sound sets a negative tone by making the reader sound angry when reading it. The third stanza portrays him with the fear and pain that are Child-like qualities. He “winds the clothes about his head” to hide from the inevitable pain that changing his bandages brings. The imagery of the cigarette shows the child trying to prove his manliness and is a clear symbol of adulthood.
ReplyDeleteDobell`s representation of war shows a completely different perception of war one of gore, despair, hopelessness and brutality. The tone even through reading the first line of “Pluck” compared to the first line of her poem due to her choice in poetic devises, powerful vocabulary, strong emotion, intense imagery and descriptive symbolism. The tone and theme of the poem is established on the first line ‘crippled for life at seventeen’. The innocence of a seventeen year old boy crippled and fighting for life and the despair and the hopelessness of the tone it is written in. It is clear through this line that and the theme and tone of the poem is obviously established making your heart sink.
ReplyDeleteDobell uses powerful imagery to convey the realities of the war front to the reader, this is conveyed with the phrase "crippled at seventeen" giving him a descriptive appearance of an old man in contrast with the soldiers young age of seventeen. The age of soldier is shown to be the main subject of the poem which is expressed, the quotation "while other boys are still at play" conveys that the soldier should be at home and fulfilling the life of a child, instead of growing up to fast to be a man. This could be contrasted with the poem 'Education' Pauline Barryington, as the quotation "the children play with soldiers made of tin" conveys the attitudes in which the adults see the children reacting to the war effects instead of "both legs smashed".
ReplyDeletei agree that the phrase 'crippled at seventeen' helps to portray the cruel realities of war through the appearance of a young soldier injured from fighting for his country due to the harsh realities of society. However adding to this i also believe that the phrase 'A child- so wasted and so white' in the second stanza could represent how a soldier feels wasted by the war and that if he had not been 'crippled at seventeen' then he could of made something of his life after war for example been able to work.
DeleteIn 'Puck', Dobell chooses to focus on the negative aspects of the war, highlighting the effect that it has had on the younger soldiers by using lines such as' a child, so wasted and white'' and 'other boys are still at play'. By referring to the younger soldiers as children and 'boys', this could make them appear vulnerable, therefore making the aftermath of war look more devastating because the young soldiers did not deserve to be scarred by the horrors of war at such as young age.
ReplyDeleteI agree that by referring to the younger soldiers as 'boys' can make them appear vulnerable, but this vulnerability could also be portrayed by Dobell comparing the actions of the young soldiers to the actions of the 'other boys' who are not at war but instead are 'at play'. The contrast in actions shocks the reader as the reality of what the seventeen year old boys were expected to do at their young age sets in. They should not have been fighting, but playing instead.
DeleteDobell could be using negative imagery and language "crippled for life at seventeen" to portray the harsh realities of war and the injuries that came with it. "Crippled" implies that there is physical injury and that the boy may now be unable to walk, but there may be deeper meaning to this and war may have also had a negative effect on the boy mentally. The specification of the boys age "seventeen" conveys that the meaning behind Dobell's poem may not have been to make the injuries that the men endured publicised but, maybe to raise awareness of the length that young men were willing to go to in order to join up, possibly due to the pressures that were forced upon them by women and the government.
ReplyDeleteHere Dobell writes about a young boy at the age of 17 who lied about his age in order to enlist in the war. The rhyme scheme could reflect how this boy should be with the other boys away from the front who 'are still at play.' The rhyme scheme is broken up which could reflect how his childhood, like many other boys who lied about their age is destroyed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this, however the rhyme scheme may be used to create a rhythmic beat within the readers mind, in order to emphasize certain points within the poem.
DeleteThe poem “Pluck” by Eva Dobell portrays the horrifying loss of innocence that many young soldiers endured during The Great War by her use of comparative stanzas, contrasting imagery, and alliteration. Dobell uses stanzas to emphasize the boy’s loss of innocence through his childlike qualities and hardened adult qualities. The first stanza gives the context of the boy’s life by describing how the war made him “Crippled for life at seventeen”.
ReplyDeleteThis poem immediately portrays an angry attitude towards war as the first line ‘crippled for life at seventeen’ shocks the reader and creates a negative tone straight away. The tone is continued throughout by use of imagery in words such as ‘helpless’, ‘smashed’, ‘die’, ‘strangled’, ‘broke’ and ‘dread’. It encourages the reader to feel disgust that this pain was allowed to happen to the men, especially to those of a young age. Therefore, the poem could compare to the poem ‘Forgotten dead, I salute you’ as this also causes the reader to feel confusion and heartbreak at the horrors of war.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this poem can be compared to 'Forgotten Dead, I Salute You' by Muriel Stuart as it contains similar emotive imagery. For example, Dobell uses phrases such as 'so broke with pain' to emphasise his 'heart-sick fear'; similarly, Stuart uses expressions such as 'blood divinely shed' after saying 'his rotting, fruitless body lies'. By using this imagery, it enables the reader to have a more graphic insight into the lives of the soldiers and the aftermath of the physical and mental scarring of the war.
DeleteDobell uses alliteration within the third stanza. "shaking, strangled sobs you hear". This use of alliteration could help the reader to create an emotive imagery of a helpless young man who is quite clearly damaged and fragile. This may help the reader understand the true horror and brutality that took place in the war.
ReplyDeleteThe poem ‘Pluck’ by Eva Dobell immediately represents one of the harsh realities of war within the first line. ‘Crippled at seventeen’ shows the innocence of the boy within the poem and demonstrates how Dobell obviously felt enraged by the fact that many young men disregarded the age of enlistment. By including the age that the boy enlisted, Dobell is able to highlight that many young men at the age of seventeen were not able to envisage the war for what it really was and did not realise the consequences of this, that they could be ‘crippled’ or ‘maimed’. This poem can be contrasted with “The Call” by Jessie Pope because it suggests that there are no ‘victors’ that emerged from the war like Pope argues but instead only ‘wasted’ young lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that the underage boys who enlisted for the war did not understand or comprehend the task that they were signing up for due to their naivety. Dobell emphasises the fact that the young boy had his whole life ahead of him but now due to the damage caused by the war he will have to experience the next years of his life 'helplessly'. This may show Dobell’s anger towards how the boys were treated after being drastically inured during the brutality of the war as she is showing how many young boys lives were needlessly thrown away.
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ReplyDeleteWithin ‘Pluck’ one of the main themes included is the emphasis on how the young boys who were enlisting did not understand what they were signing up for and did not expect many of the harsh realities of the war. Dobell’s use of language displays her obvious distress regarding this subject. Her use of alliteration, 'shaking, strangled sobs' personifies the young soldier’s situation and stress at what has happened to him. This poem can be compared to 'Despair' by Olive E. Lindsay as Lindsay writes 'put me out my pain' which can be compared to where Dobell includes 'it might have been better in that grim trench to die' as both poets show how dramatically the soldiers were affected by the war and that some would rather be dead than live with the experiences they have been left with.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say that the use of alliteration personifies the soldier's situation as it really enables the reader to see and understand the realities of what these young men had to endure as a result of being naïve. The alliteration is a prime example of Dobell's opinion and how she highlights her anger towards the situation that the young soldier's were put in. Furthermore we are able to see Dobell's distress through the line 'other boys are still at play' as it convey show she regards the young men as boys, which gives a sense on dependency.
DeleteI agree that 'Dispair' by Olive E Lindsay is a good comparison. Another could be 'An incident' by Mary H J Henderson as she also emphasises the fact that many of the soldiers are so young "like a child". She takes on a mother/son relationship with the young, wounded soldier in the poem referring to him as "just a boy".
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ReplyDeleteThis is cool
ReplyDeleteEva Dobell author of ‘Pluck’ shows that a boy is trying to be something he is not. By using ‘His shaking, strangled sobs you here’ she has both impacted the reader emotionally making them feel angry with what had been done to the boy, but this also portrayed the boys true self, of being but a mere child, as these are childish actions not man like actions. This is supported by the fact that the boy ‘smokes’ his ‘cigarettes’ almost to say that he is trying to be a man, and hence supporting even more that he is only a child.
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