My+Willie+Has+Gone..

__Willie Has Gone to War__ //Willie Has Gone to War// d is a song that was written by George Cooper and the music was created by Stephan Foster.

The beginning section of the song has a playful, light-hearted tone. This is my explanation of thies first stanza: It begins talking about happy subjects such as birds singing, the aroma of flowers, and bees enjoying themselves, etc. The song starts off by putting you in a happy mood and placing a smile on your face. The narrator then describes walking along a brook. He says that he has wandered to this brook several times before. This is where the narrator thinks and ponders about the things that are upsetting him greatly at the time. He weeps this time becasue his loved one, Willie, has just left for war.

The second, fourth, and sixth stanzas are the chorus. The chorus stresses the fact that the narrator is upset about Willie leaving for war and misses him and loves him dearly.

The third stanza: The narrator then begins to reminise about the last times (or previous times) that he had been with Willie. He loved Willie and enjoyed spending their beautiful time they had togeter and knows that most likely he won't be spending times like that with Willie anytime soon, or ever.

The fifth stanza is a really depressing way to end the song. It puts a damper on everything the narrator described as happy and joyous in the first stanzas. Gloomy phrases such as forest leaves fading, roses dying, etc. give you the comparison that the narrator is believing that this relationship with Willie is dying because he is going to war. The he ways that we will hope and wait for the day that hte war will come to an end and he and Willie can be reunited! 1204149703

The song, Willie has gone to the War, was about the narrator loathing on the fact that his beloved one, Willie, went to war and didn't came back. The song described a very happy presence that gets the reader hooked on to, seemingly supposed that this was going to be a straight up happy song. Then the sadness begins, when the narrator says the chorus, he's saying that those happy days are over and maybe someday Willie will come back to me. He describes in the second verse how he misses seeing Willie and explains how it first started when he hadn't seen Willie for a while,

"’Twas here, where the lily bells grow,  I last saw his noble young face, And now while he’s gone to the foe"

Then the third verse is where things got too sad and dramatic. He wrote about how the days went by as it got worse not seeing Willie. Although the narrator still waits for his beloved friend will come back from the war.

These are the issues how families feel when the have loved ones fighting in a war in Iraq. The families deeply feel sorrow and despair for the ones they are still waiting for to be together again as a family. People wait and wait for a very long time for thier son/daughter/father to come back home. This song reminded me of the Iraq war and helped me realize that if I was in their situation, I too would wait and be hopeful every single day for my brother or my father to come back home. This was a great song/poem to focus on.1204157478

I agree with MBu. This song is about someone whose loved one went to war. It is tough to have a loved one go to war because there is always a chance that they will never come back. I do not blame the narrator for being sad because Willie went to the war. Families of loved ones at war are constantly praying to God that their loved one who is at war will make it through the war and come home. My family kind of has first hand experience of this, or we might in the near future. My brother is in his final year at West Point Military Academy. After he graduates, he will have to be in the army for a few years. This means that there is a chance that he will go to either Iraq or Afghanistan to fight in the wars in those countries. My family is really hoping that the government will start pulling the troops out of Iraq soon so he will not have to go. Overall, I liked this song because it fives the point of view of the families who have had a loved one go to war.1204158967

I agree with the both of them, this is a love song in a way. This song is about another human being longing for another. War is very sad it familes that have soldiers that are in the war a worreid to there stomachs everyday. When My Grandpa went off to war my grandma said that she would wake up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat becuase she just had a horrific dream of my grandpa being carted home in a steel casket. This song has some relation to a thing that we use today to remember and honor our soldiers which is the yellow ribbon around a tree or by the mail box. Back then this song honored the solieders and now we have the yellow ribbon and it means the same reason.

To me this poem seems really calm in the begining, very relaxed easy going. I think they talk about that becuase in the beging no one expected the war to be serous or long, they all thought it was going to be over in 4 days or the longest 3 months. Then it seems to get more serous towards the middle and then end. I think this song was written over a period of time of the war. It is almost like a time line if you look at it differntly. Like I mentioned before in the begining its nice and then all of a sudden it gets serous in the middle. Its very intersting how this poem is layed out. But as you can see in this song this person that wrote it really cared and wanted to honor this particallur soldier. =Ale2= _ __I really enjoyed this poem. It didn't use any hard wording which made it easy to understand but it didn't need the big vocabulary to still make a good point and express feeling. Plus, I think that the poem brought up a subject that even people in today's time can relate to. Everyone knows the feeling of losing or missing someone and praying for their safe return. My favorite part about reading this poem was the feeling that it gave me as a reader. Normally it is hard for me to get into poems, especially the ones we've been working on. But this one I could just relax and read. Understanding the poem on the first read relieved me of the stress of figuring out all the vocab and reading into the stanzas more. This made it a whole lot easier to focus on my feelings of the poem.1205280644__

I also find that this poem is quite interesting. I think that from a composition point of view it is terrible, it has no significance, doesn't follow a plot line, and it is extremely repetitive. But what this poem it trying to do is to describe something that is undescribable, and that is very hard to do. Losing someone is a horrible ordeal, no matter what you can never quite express and get over the pain of losing something that is a part of your life. So even if this poem doesn't make a whole lot of sense I still appreciate it and understand the value of it.I also understand how much work that was put into this poem so I respect the writer of the poem as well. 1205281599

I didn't like this poem. I thought it seemed repetitive. Why did he say the same thing over and over? I thought that it was also really gloomy; it made me feel really bummed out for a little while. I also think that this poem really captured the feelings of the families who had relatives in war back in the day, also now with people over in Iraq, when I heard this poem that was the only thing that was going through my head. I wasn't really thinking about the civil war, but the Iraq war and everyone that is fighting in Afghanistan and stuff like that. I don't know anyone who is currently stationed over there, but I think that people who do should really give this song a listen. 1205282404

__When I first read this poem I was kind of annoyed by its repetition. After rereading it and instead of "listening" to the poem and more so comprending it, I realized that it really is a very sad poem. I think that the entire poem was written with great emotion. To know that someone you love is going to fight in a war and is risking the chance of not coming back is such a scary thought but to actually lose someone is so incredibly hard. When I think about this, it reminds me of all of the lives lost in Iraq. One of my friend's cousins died and he was only 22. Such a short life lived for a such large cause. I really commend and highly respect all veterans and believe that they have the hardest jobs of all. This poem is not only true for its time period but for all generations. It's not one of those poems that you read and just dismiss because you can't apply it to yourself. "’Twas here, where the lily bells grow,  I last saw his noble young face, And now while he’s gone to the foe" I think that this is the saddest part of the poem because its the turning point. The author is finally realizing that Willie is gone forever. I think that this poem is enlightening on the dark side of war but at the same time reminds us all of the pending consequences of war which gives it great seriousness. 1205291468 _____ I agree with everyone this song is about someones love one who went off to war. This is trying to get out how hard and difficult it is for the families who go through with there family member or friends go off to war and how tuff it is on them. I can relate to this poem because my brother was down in iraq and its very stress full, i was constantly thinking i hope hes ok. My brother would call once a week and he told us he had to go on a mission and we didnt recieve a call for over a month and i was really scared not knowing where he was. having someone over there is probably one of the most stressfull things that someone could go through.1205370072

I really enjoyed this poem. The stanzas are describing the moments that the narrator spent with her love and how it would be never the same without him. Near the end, the narrator portrays her feelings in relationship to nature. But what i really liked about the poem is the chorus. It is basically saying that her love, Willie, went off to the war and how he might not be turning back. However, these four lines have more meaning that just the fact the Willie has gone to the war. The author is portraying the negative side of the war and people's sorrow through the these lines. The chorus helps us understand the feeling of people waiting back at home for their sons and husbands to return safely. 1205380400

i two enjoyed this poem. i thought it was sweet hoe this person was writeing about their loved one going to war. i also think this person as a good mindset in the way that they know willie could not be back and be gone from their life forever. i think this poem realy helps people understand how it was really hard for these people to just let these people go off to war knowing that this could be the last time they see them, but they pray that they may come back and be just fine. 1205446832

This song is very sad. The alliteration of the letter "W" can make it seem a bit more light-hearted, but it is truely quite sad. It brings right home what people had to deal with when their young sons, brothers, lovers, or husbands had to go to war because they felt the need. It takes the sorrow from a different perspective; we're no longer looking at the sadness at the battle field, we're looking at the sadness right at home. The narrator is looking at everything beautiful around them, but can't even concentrate because their loved one is gone. 1205467056

My Willie Has Gone to the War is a song about Willies loved one like maybe his girlfriend or wife who is singing/crying about how he has left for the war. Its really a very sad song. Although some of the comparisons and lines are really beautiful. They use things like flowers and water to say in the poem. This was probably the general feeling from most of the women felt when their husbands or sons or any loved one had to go to war. The chorus is very repetitive with the letter W and of course the name Willie. In the chorus this person is pouring out their love to this Willie of how sad they are that he left and how much they love Willie. I think that this is actually a really good song because it shows so much emotion and feeling! 1205468053