Comparing War Literature

Compared to Komenyaka's poems, Hugh Martin and Brian Turner's work both reflect a distinct change in the way wars are fought. In Vietnam literature, stealth and having balance with the landscape which conceals and protects seem to have a special importance for the soldiers. However, much of Martin and Brian's poems tell of insurgent and IED patrols where the Americans are helplessly out in the open, knowing they are being watched by the enemy, an indication that nature assumes the role of exposure rather than concealment . While the killer in the Vietnam war might have been a camouflaged Viet Cong sniper or booby trap, the dangers for American troops in the Middle Eastern wars seem far more inanimate: dead animal carcases, old tires, water bottles, etc.- all potentially carrying explosives and shrapnel.

While the enemy and settings change between the wars, the poems tend to all share a dreamlike quality about them. Komenyaka's poems for instance, elicit the atmosphere of nature and as such his poems tend to have a romantic quality about them:

wrestling iron through grass.

We weren’t there. The river ran

through our bones. Small animals took refuge

against our bodies; we held our breath,

ready to spring the L-shaped

ambush, as a world revolved 

under each man’s eyelid

 -Komenyaka, Camouflaging the Chimera

     Similarly, Turner's work often has a romantic tone despite the reality of the story he's telling:

   We share a long night

of breathing. And when the dead

speak to us, we must be patient,

for the night is still ours

on the rooftops of Al Ma'badi,

with a tracery of lights

falling all around us.

-Tuner, Where the Telemetries End