War Poetry - Chris

When it comes to traditional “war poetry”, the skeptical reader may think that this genre belongs solely to the poets who wrote gory recounts of the World War One battlefield. Poetry involving modern warfare is not even as distinguished without the use of heavy diction and a dark atmosphere. Although the war discussed in “Monday Morning” by DJ Renegade does not include a traditional critique of war, it is nonetheless a war poem. Before arriving at this conclusion however, I believe it is important to understand what a war poem is. We will see that similar themes, diction and figurative language aid us to label “Monday Morning” a war poem.

With no personal authority on war poetry, I turned to Oxford’s dictionaries for a definition. In their mind a war poet is “a poet writing at the time of and on the subject of war, especially one on military service during World War I” (“War Poet, noun”, Oxford). DJ Renegade in his poem makes his references specific in order to illustrate the circumstance in which he is writing. We even get specific streets such as “First St. NW and Florida Ave” (Renegade 3, 20). On a national level, his references to streets and names like “Gary, Ronald and Melvin” mean nothing (1, 5, 10). Therefore we can infer that this is first-hand experience, like most war poems of the World War Two period, Renegade in his poem is trying to personalize violence for the masses.

Renegade’s work is certainly poetry, but war is a term yet to be defined. Again referring to Oxford’s dictionaries, war can be defined as “a state of armed conflict within different groups of a nation” (“War” noun, Oxford). Now, in “Monday Morning” there is little diction that would lead us to believe the author participated in any warfare, but in war poetry it is sufficient to speak at the time of war. Renegade uses imagery of “empty wine bottles...carnations” to depict a “cemetery” (Renegade 16, 17, 19). This is referring to someone recently deceased and context will tell us that southeast DC is notorious for gang violence and thus, his friend was probably a victim of this conflict.

Armed with an authority of definitions, Oxford, as well as common themes and figurative language, I ask the skeptical reader: How can “Monday Morning” not be war poetry? Renegade’s retort to “Sunday Morning” by Stevens and humanizing of the war front at home provide more of a protest than traditional war poetry. It is difficult to relate to scenes of machine guns and graphic descriptions of bullets ripping through tissue, but on the news daily we hear about a shooting. In Renegade’s poem we can picture “Ronald’s Nikes [hung] from power lines” and we can relate to his “eyelashes [that] are wet” (26). At the same time however these themes are not farfetched for war poetry. We have tears, death, and reflection. This message of this war is brought to you from right here in the United States.