J. Patrick Lewis’s The Brothers’ War: Civil War Voices in Verse combines historical photographs of the Civil War era with short poems and information that provides context for the poems and photographs.

The very first page, opposite the introduction, of The Brothers’ War: Civil War Voices in Verse is a photograph of dead soldiers lying on the ground, which aptly frames the central and overwhelming problem with this book of poetry ostensibly written for children: who on earth is it for? The poems are sophomoric and shallow, which adults would easily pick up on, but the often disturbing photographs and subject matter are clearly not appropriate for younger readers. While it is admirable to teach history to children, viewing photographs of actual corpses seems a bit much.

J. Patrick Lewis’s poetry is uneven and inconsistent in quality, sometimes employing more traditional forms of verse and other times using free-verse that is frequently stilted and amateurish. Analyzing free-verse is often difficult to do, because there are no formal rules by which to evaluate and it is largely based on personal taste; however, in the case of bad poetry, though there may be no singular definition or universal rules, it is easy to identify it. To borrow a famous phrase from a judge, “I know it when I see it”.

Lewis’s poetry in other collections has slanted heavily toward nonsense verse; while he will likely never be on par with the likes of Shel Silverstein, his verses are acceptable and decent. In The Brothers’ War, however, he seems to have overreached his skills. Rather than being a moving, heart-wrenching poetry collection designed to humanize the statistics of the Civil War, Lewis has written a collection of maudlin, platitude-ridden tripe.

Some of the wording of the poems is problematic, both culturally and historically. The language betrays a very shallow understanding of history that is echoed in most of the poems in the collection, the meaning of which seem to boil down to the trite “war is bad”.

Even at the most basic word level, Lewis betrays a lack of the most rudimentary understanding. In “Nathaniel Gwinnett – Shrapnel Wound”, the protagonist writes that his brothers “rode to war/Into Confederate flak”. “Flak” refers to anti-aircraft fire, which would have been inaccurate to the Civil War era. It is possible that Lewis is using the less common meaning of flak referring to shelling, which is technically correct, but used almost exclusively in terms of modern artillery, making this a bizarre word choice that seems to be more suited for the purposes of rhyming than meaning. At the very least, it is startlingly anachronistic and pulls the reader out of the poem.

The wording of the poetry itself is often unnecessarily graphic for juvenile readers, such as a line in “Boys in a Brothers’ War” that reads, “… whose father was nothing really,/stopped a Union bullet with his face” or in “Letter From Home”, “A shell blew half his body back to God/His brother Roy, Corporal, Artillery/Knelt down in Jacob’s blood and vissera [sic]”. Even supposing the appropriateness for young readers, the insultingly transparent attempt to arouse emotion through shock at lividly described violence is no more than a facile strategy employed by an author bereft of talent and good taste.

Lewis’s subject matter – combined with sometimes graphic, disturbing photographs, such as the mutilated back of a slave who was repeatedly and brutally whipped – would imply that this book was meant for more mature audiences, but the superficial understanding of the nuances of one of the most memorable and important wars in American history and the puerile poetry that defies scansion and rejects complexity means that mature audiences are unlikely to enjoy the collection. The poems in The Brothers’ War betray a distinct lack of structure and formal education in poetry. Sheer enthusiasm is not enough to make up for genuine skill.

And, even if the pictures and wording of the poems were acceptable, as some might find, the verse itself is just bad. The language, scansion, emotional impact, and tone remains on par with a teenager writing dramatic, emotional poems on their livejournal after school.

The Brothers’ War: Civil War Voices in Verse is a two-dimensional, superficial failure confused by its own audience. The few poems that are both decently written and not gory and violent in a transparent attempt to shock readers into sympathy are not enough to make up for the doggerel on every other page; the lines that are worthy of consideration, such as the genuinely haunting line, "This war thins mothers' sons to skeletons" from “Letter Home” do not make up for the deficiencies of the rest of the book, but rather highlight them. The photographs themselves are stirring, but available in other, much better, books, which wise readers would do well to avail themselves of while giving this one a pass. ( )

1. The Brothers’ war: Civil War Voices in Verse, By J. Patrick Lewis and published 2007 by National Geographic Children’s books, is a historical poetry book that contains collections of poems by civil war soldiers. This was a great chapter book that I enjoyed reading. The poems in this book give a firsthand account of the horrors of the Civil War through poetry. The book is also accompanied with historic photos that go with the poem. All of the poems in this book drew me into the writer’s life and struggles but one really caught my attention, Blood of our Fathers Blood of Our sons. This specific poem is about the First Battle of Bull Run. This poem contains many outstanding features such as: a griping photograph and explanation of a young confederate soldier, accurate historical detail, and very descriptive language in the poem. As I stated before, each poem is accompanied by a photograph that has something in common with the poem. This poem features a picture of a boy around the age of 14. The description of the photograph says that it was not uncommon for young teenaged boys to join the army and fight in the war. Reading the description of the picture and the history of young soldiers provided in the book helped me to relate to the poem. The picture offers a great Segway into the poem which is about a father fighting against his young son in battle. The historical detail in this poem helped me to connect with the poem and to picture the events happing in the poem in my head. In the paragraph bellow the poem the author of the book writes about how, from the very beginning of the war, members of the same family found each other supporting opposite sides of the war. The poem talks about how it was not uncommon for family members to fight against family members. In this poem a father on the Union side kills his son who is fighting for the Confederate side. This unfortunate historical fact helped me to get involved in the poem and to even feel the fathers, and son’s pain. Included in the poem are details specific to The First Bull Run that include: 5 thousand died in this battle alone, the specific road of the battle (Sudley Road), and the date of the battle, July 21, 1861. These facts, combined with other details of the battle helped me to visualize the battle in my head. The descriptive language in this poem helped me to visualize the horrors of war and brought the story to life. The author of the poem describes how the battle was so bloody that it seemed as though the sky was raining blood. The author even goes on to describe the noise of a bullet breaking a bone. This gruesome yet visually distinctive language helped me to create a picture of the battle in my head which, in turn, made it easier to read the poem. The part that has the most descriptive language in it is at the very end when the father reacts over killing his son and his son’s reaction. The line of the father’s reaction reads, “Distraught, the sergeant rolled him on his side.” This line alone shows how sad and depressed the father was because of his act. We see the son sad about this as well when he asks with his dying breath “’Father… Why?’” we feel the sadness, and maybe forgiveness, in the son’s death. The sons question of “Why” had me think as a reader, does the son mean why as in “why did you shot me?” Or why as in “why must there be a war so terrible that it pits father against son? Racism, Family, and the horrors of war are ever present themes in, The Brothers War: Civil War Voices in Verse. The book revolves around how horrible this war was and how it affected every family in the nation. A large part of the Civil War revolved around racism, and thus racism plays a large part in some of the poems. ( )

Beautiful verse accompanied by actual photographs taken on the battlefields of the Civil War. ( )

Not for kids! There are some gruesome Brady pictures in here, plus there was a poem with a verse about "stopping a bullet with my face" or something. Otherwise a great book, but for older kids. There are little synopsis next to the poems about the aspect of the Civil War they were writing about. ( )