In the poem futility the poet expresses their feelings on war and how war is futile and how nothing can help the people caught up in it this is shown when the poet says “woke once the clays of a cold star.” This uses an oxymoron to make the effect of irony as the cold star suggests that the sun gives life but does not care about it making the reader feel that the sun gives a false sense of hope to people at war the poem shows this by talking about the person and how the sun can heal him however in the second paragraph he starts becoming more depressed and he starts describing the enviroment around him in a negative way.
In the poem flag by John Aggard he explains on how a flag can make people who don’t want to fight be forced into war due to the images of pride and hope it creates just like the sun in futility, this is shown when he says “what’s that unfurling from a pole? It’s just a piece of cloth that makes the guts of men grow bold.” This uses a question to take away all meaning of a flag by not describeing it leaving the reader open to the questioning of what a flag means and its effects on people and how it makes innocent men throw themselves into a war they are not prepared for due to the sense of pride and hope a flag gives them even though it is futile to think it can help them simalar to the sun in futility. He structures the poem in a way that makes a flag seem meaningless by saying various things in the first sentence and then replying in the second line such as “what’s that fluttering in the breeze it’s just a piece of cloth.
React!