Weapons Training and Homecoming are two poems written by the famous Australian author Bruce Dawe. Both poems oppose the Vietnam War, but approach the topic in very different ways. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Weapons training is brutal in its topics and language. Describes the training that new recruits undergo before being sent to war. It records the berating of a new group by their sergeant major who forcibly conditions them to become reckless killing machines. The poem suggests that new troops had better be prepared to kill instinctively as any hesitation in the field could lead to them being shot first - worse luck or you would have been too late, isn't it. In addition to the insults the sergeant hurls, the automation of kills is encouraged by dehumanizing the enemy with words like “crowd of little yellows,” “a pack of Charlie's,” and “their breath rotten with fish sauce.” Physically it is easier to shoot an object than a person. Because of the dehumanization, the insults “look at the front if you had an extra brain” and “you in the back row with the unsightly fat” and the insinuation that the recruits are homosexual “why are you looking at me, are you a faggot?”, the reader he might hate the Sergeant. However, Dawe suggests that the sergeant might act this way so that the recruits remain safe, as shown in the final lines “did you take the damn fate just like I said and do you know what you are? You're dead, dead, dead” You almost feel sorry for him because he probably trained a lot of recruits who didn't come back from the war. This is very different from how the poem begins. Homecoming is also an anti-war poem, although it is much more thoughtful and subdued. It's about the horrors that soldiers go through during their service. “They are picking up the ones they can find and bringing them home” Every soldier has seen members of their battalion die a painful death. He had to pick up his fallen comrades, because they will never be able to get up again. The horrors they face are imaginable, some soldiers are never the same after serving. The atmosphere of the poem is very dark and sad, you can feel the pain and sadness that not only the soldiers but also the families of the fallen and returned soldiers feel. While Weapons Training dehumanizes, in Homecoming there is a lot of personification "The telegrams tremble like leaves of a wintering tree and the spider's pain swings in its bitter geometry." It seems that these ordinary objects are alive, that they have their own emotions. 'The noble jets yelp like hounds' Dawe compared the planes carrying dead soldiers to dogs, saying the sound the plane made was similar to the whine a dog would make when sad. Dawe expressed that the plane feels the emotion of sadness. “The howl of their homecoming goes up” When the plane is seen on the horizon, the citizens celebrate, not knowing that this plane brings the fallen soldiers home, but a howl can convey different emotions. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom EssayWeapons Training and Homecoming are anti-war poems, both expressing the horrors of war. One prepares you for the possibility of death and the other prepares you for what happens after death. Yet both poems use different structures, language, and emotions to express this.