Ancient Fury and Holy War: On the Overlaying Themes of Religion, Power, and Masculinity in Eberhart and Orwell Isaac Massey College

There is a thematic overlap between Richard Eberhart’s poetry about the Second World War, and George Orwell’s testimony from the Spanish Civil War, and this intersection of ideas is relevant to timeless issues of religion, specifically the Judeo-Christian tradition, and hypermasculinity (i.e. affirmations of aggression and strength). Specifically, in Eberhart’s 1947 poem, “The Fury of Aerial Bombardment”, and Orwell’s 1938 memoir, Homage to Catalonia, war is related to: fury, in every sense of the word; the philosophical problem of evil and crises of faith; and violence, human nature, and hypermasculinity. I will work through each stanza from “The Fury” one at a time, comparing and contrasting with Homage to demonstrate how these themes function and why they reoccur. I will subsequently deconstruct the thesis of “The Fury” by drawing from biblical scholarship, historical theory, and cultural studies, arguing that power, in the framework of war, is informed by masculinity and religion, which simultaneously inform each other.

The opening stanza of “The Fury of Aerial Bombardment” is a collective prayer for divine intervention. The poet hails “You” in the first line, making relevant the reader to the context of this lamentation...