Outline

In the poem Route March by Charles Sorley diction, imagerary, and tone are employed to evoke sensations of tradgedy from the slaughtered soldiers in WW1

The sarcastic tone shows the authors bitter attitude towards the heroic mirage of war that fill the soldiers mind.

·      “On the road to death sing”

o   The ironic juxtaposition of song and death creates a dark sarcastic tone

o   Sorely is conveying the tragic falseness of romanticized warfare through this bitter sarcastic tone.

o   Song is associated with romanticized warfare and was used to keep the troops spirits lifted and get them ready for a battle which they all felt they would probably win and become heroes from, but the soldiers hoping to attain heroic status are unaware that their destination is death

o   Sarcasm typically displays a passive aggressive bitter attitude especially when written in a tragic manner, showing how the author is feeling betrayed and powerless after the war

·      The mythic imagery of the earth creates the soldiers false vision of romantic warfare.

o   “All the hills and vales along
Earth is bursting into song”

o   This notion of vast hills appearing to sing creates a sense of unity with nature and beauty.

o   The music of the hills has climatic triumphant imagery a sensation of greatness

o   This heavily romantic imagery builds up the sensation of a soldiers eagerness to fight, their heroic preconception of war

·      The diction used is often simple and straightforward

o   “Live little, great pass”

o   There is little emotion or tragedy created by this diction it is straight forward and matter of fact

o   The lack of remorse from this blunt diction is a stark contrast to the romantic description of the hills; the great drop from dreaming to glory to dying with no dignity creates more tragedy, interestingly despite the lack of tragedy in the diction describing their death.