The two poems I have chosen to analyse are "Zonnebeke Road" by Edmund Blunden and "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath. I chose these two poems for the simple reasons that they both moved me when I read them and the fact that they are both about very deep and almost disturbing personal experiences.

"Zonnebeke Road" takes us through the thoughts, mood and gloomy surroundings of a soldier in the front line trenches on Zonnebeke Road in Belgium. Zonnebeke Road was an area of heavy fighting during the First World War where masses of soldiers were killed. This poem encapsulates the savageness and brutality of war with the use of an almost sarcastic tone, chilling imagery and the personification of nature. It is written from first hand experience of being engaged in battle.

The tone of the poem, in the beginning, is...