God! How I hate you, you young cheerful men

Arthur Graeme West - BookShout

Arthur Graeme West was born in Norwich, England and moved to London at a young age. West attended Blundell's School where he met his lifelong friend Cyril Joad. Joad played an important role in West's success as a writer after his death. Joan became edited West's war diary, "The Diary of a Dead Officer: Being the Posthumous Papers of Arthur Graeme West". However, Joan's editing does not portray West accurately. For example, Joan describes West to have been unsuited to be a soldier. According to War Poets, " Soon after beginning a fifth year in October 1914 he decided to apply for a commission, but he was rejected for poor eyesight. Nevertheless he joined up in the ranks of the Public Schools battalion in February 1915, soon becoming a lance corporal. Sent to France in November, he was repeatedly in action" (warpoets.org, 2018). As you can see, Joan may not have been very accurate with his description of West. However, West's poem, "God! How I hate you, you young cheerful men", provides a deep understanding of his thoughts on the battlefield. The first two lines of the poem immediately paints the idea of death. Irony is presented through the words, "Whose pious poetry blossoms on your grave" (West, 2). The words "pious" and "blossoms" create a positive feeling, but "graves" completely turns to the dark meaning of the poem. The poem goes on to describe the horrible scenes during the war and the gory reality in the trenches. West also challenges those with a positive mentality by listing all of the horrors on the battlefield line after line. The line, "Blown down his throat: stumbled through ruined hearths, proved all that muddy brown monotony, Where blood's the only coloured thing" (West, 19), provides clarity to the reader how no one will be able to comprehend the disgusting scenes of war until they experience it themselves.