Liz Claessens: Peer Commentary for Nadine Cohen

English 354/Finley: 4 October 1999

In her essay "The Inadequacy of Language in 'Recalling War' Nadine Cohen

discusses the limitations of language in describing trauma specifically

within the medium of war poetry. Though Nadine writes convincingly, I

disagree with a few of her assertions. While I fully acknowledge the

limitations of language to convey fully and accurately traumatic

experience, I hesitate to completely dismiss war poetry, and especially

poetry of the Great War as being "simply incapable of expressing what is

essentially expressionless." In the case of Robert Graves' "Recalling War"

I think expressing trauma isn't so much the point as is criticizing through

the use of irony, as Nadine rightly observed, the different means of

"recalling" war from twenty years later. Graves distances himself from the

men missing arms, legs, and vision with the lines, "Their war was fought these

twenty years ago/And now assumes the nature-look of time." These poignant

lines do not leave the reader with a sense of inadequacy either in

understanding or meaning. The "inadequacy" of poetic expression in

expressing trauma would likely be a problem faced by the poet alone, rather

than a shared experience with the reader as Nadine suggests. Because the

reader can never fully grasp the intent of the poet simply due to poetry's

personal intensity, it is impossible to then react to a reading using the

words "inadequate," or "impotent." Even a detailed historical understanding

of the Great War will never compare with the physical experience of it that

men like Graves had; but as readers we can still identify or project enough

of the emotions and sensations that are however inadequately expressed,

though they are destined to be less meaningful to us. What point would

there be to reading poetry if we had to abandon every hope of understanding

its message? War poetry is far more complex, but "Recalling War" is more

accessible than most and can be closely examined