Ivor Gurney: Mixed Feelings

Ivor Gurney has an interesting viewpoint when the subject manner is war. Some might believe that he is glorifying war in the poem “First Time In,” however I believe that he is simply expressing real feelings that seem to come together in a peculiar manner in situations such as war. He mixes beauty with fear when describing how he felt when he first entered action. Unlike some of the other war poets, Gurney seems to be very in tune with and up close and personal with the war and what occurs. Being that Garney was a private instead of an officer works as a way to remove the distance felt in other similar poems written about war. He discusses the warmness felt from the folk music of the Welsh which seems to be even better with the guns going off. He states “Beautiful tune to which roguish words by Welsh pit boys are sung—but never more beautiful than there under the guns’ noise” (496). Gurney displays how even in something as scary as war beauty is all around and is mixed in with that fear.