Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Talking Bronco: The Volunteer’s Reply to the Poet", Ignatius Royston Dunnachie Campbell presents a biting, satirical dialogue between a soldier and a poet, exposing the chasm between those who fight in wars and those who romanticize it from afar. The soldier, addressing the poet directly, expresses disillusionment with the rhetoric of war and the way it is packaged by poets, intellectuals, and political leaders. Through sharp wit and bitter irony, Campbell critiques the cycle of war, the manipulation of public sentiment, and the poet’s complicity in selling this glorified narrative.

The soldier’s voice, marked by a tone of anger and sarcasm, opens with a direct rebuke: “Oh yes! it will all be the same, / But a bloody sight worse, and you know it.” This sets the tone for the rest of the poem, as the soldier predicts that future wars will follow the same grim patterns as those before, only worse. The poet, accused of having "a hand in the game," is portrayed as a manipulator, crafting catchwords and phrases that incite people to fight and die. These words are not merely innocent or idealistic—they are part of a deliberate machinery that makes slaughter palatable by packaging it in "rosier packets" and disguising it with hopeful rhetoric. The image of the poet "picking your nose with your pen" while soldiers are “blasted to blazes” highlights the poet’s detachment from the brutal realities of war.

A recurring theme in the poem is the cyclical nature of war and the exploitation of soldiers by those in power, a pattern driven in part by poets who help create the emotional and ideological justification for conflict. The soldier laments the fact that once the fighting is over, society will move seamlessly from one war to the next, led by figures like the "new Father Christmas," a symbol of the comforting but deceitful leaders who offer empty promises of peace and prosperity. This figure, like his predecessors, offers a "cheap cornucopia" of false hopes while securing the nation’s weapons and preparing for the next generation’s conscription. The soldier bitterly reflects that the weapons handed in after one war will be kept "safe" until they are needed again, trapping their sons in the same cycle of sacrifice.

Campbell’s critique extends to the poet’s role in this cycle, accusing the poet of turning the suffering of soldiers into a commodity. The poet-civilian’s sentimentality, his “pathos, and pity,” are tools to evoke emotional responses from widows, sweethearts, and the public, but ultimately they serve to enrich the poet, as the soldier sardonically notes: “For our woes are the cash in his kitty.” The image of the poet doles out “Goitre in dollops” like a cheap product for public consumption underscores the crass commercialization of soldiers' suffering. The poet, comfortably positioned in the "rear" away from the front lines, profits off the very people he pretends to mourn.

In an especially biting section, the soldier foresees his own post-war fate and that of his comrades: a life of poverty, reduced to hawking matches and laces in the streets. Even then, the poet will continue to exploit their misery, "publishing the hunger I’m feeling" and profiting off their desperation. The juxtaposition between the soldier’s physical suffering and the poet’s emotional posturing sharpens the irony, as the poet’s tears, sold at "a guinea a tear," become emblematic of the hypocrisy and distance between those who fight and those who profit from their sacrifices.

The poem’s structure, a series of rhymed quatrains, gives it a conversational and mocking rhythm that matches the soldier’s sarcastic tone. The ABAB rhyme scheme lends the poem a sing-song quality, which contrasts with the seriousness of its subject matter, further emphasizing the soldier’s scorn for the superficiality of the poet’s approach to war. The soldier’s voice is bitter and unflinching, refusing to let the poet’s idealized and sanitized version of war go unchallenged.

In essence, "The Volunteer’s Reply to the Poet" is a scathing critique of the role of intellectuals, poets, and public figures in the glorification and perpetuation of war. Campbell suggests that the soldier, while used and discarded by society, has a clearer understanding of the truth than the poet, who hides behind sentimentality and turns suffering into a profitable enterprise. The poem forces the reader to confront the uncomfortable reality that war, far from being a noble or heroic enterprise, is often a deeply cynical and exploitative affair in which the most vulnerable are sacrificed for the benefit of those in power. The soldier’s final, bitter declaration that the poet will continue to offer "beautiful thoughts on our Fate" even as soldiers die in the gutter underscores the tragic and seemingly inescapable nature of this cycle.

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